A fourth guardian
by Cursor
Summary: Zero encounters Harpuia on one of his missions and Harpuia presents him with an offer. An offer will force him to leave the resistance. Completed.
1. The offer

A fourth guardian 

By: Cursor

Disclaimer: I do not own or am in anyway affiliated with or endorsed by Capcom and/or Megaman/Rockman Zero.

Some characters that will appear in the later chapters of this story will be original and a claimer will be presented at the beginning of the chapter introducing them.

Summery:

Zero encounters Harpuia on one of his missions and Harpuia presents him with an offer. An offer will force him to leave the resistance.

This story takes place after the events of Megaman Zero 2 shortly before the beginning of Megaman Zero 3.

Chapter 1: The offer 

Zero was sitting on top of the right tower of the new resistance base; he was sitting with one knee bent, one straight, with his right arm wrapped over the bent knee, looking upwards at the moon.

Ciel was sitting next to him, on the barrel of the turret, her feet hanging in the air and dangling with the soft night breeze.

"So..." Ciel started to say, "What will you tell him?" she glanced over at Zero's face; they wore a sealed expression but he was obviously deep in thought.

A few moments passed with only the soft whistling of the wind disturbing the silence before Zero answered, "I don't know." He stated. "He expects my reply within a week so I will have time to think about it." He said, still staring at the round form of the full moon.

"Well, whatever you do choose. Know that I am one hundred percent backing you up. Soon I will finish my energy research the "Ciel system" and we won't have to fight Neo-Arcadia anymore." Ciel informed, her blond ponytail fluttered from the wind.

Zero finally turned his head towards her, staring at her sapphire eyes he said, "I just feel a bit guilty, the only reason that Harpuia offered this to me is because, well..." He trailed off but Ciel interrupted,

"It was his choice Zero. You didn't select his fate _he_ did there was nothing you could do." She said harshly, "You should really stop blaming yourself for it."

He looked at the stars, his gaze passing from clusters to clusters; Orion's belt, the big bear and the small bear.

"I'm not trying to rush you into a decision Zero, I will be okay with every decision you make. If you need more time to think about it then go ahead, there is no rush! You have a whole week to think it over." Ciel elucidated.

He looked at her and she tilted her head a bit and beamed at him.

He smiled back, he seemed more relaxed now and he looked much less troubled.

"You're right, I have time. I shouldn't worry about it so much." Zero said.

"That's right, and I am sure you will make the right decision." Ciel said confidently.

"Let's go back in," Zero said as the wind grew stronger, "It is getting chilly." He slid off the top and landed on the ground.

He stretched out his hands and Ciel dropped down to him.

He caught her and they walked to the elevator leading to the base.

After a few hours... at Neo-Arcadia's fortress...

Harpuia was in the training hall, using his twin lilac sabers to slice sharp disks that were hurled at him at high speed from a machine at the opposite side of the room.

"Increase difficulty, 4 levels." Harpuia said loudly, and the machine produced a low humming noise before spitting out four disks at the same time.

Harpuia sliced two of them on the ground and went airborne to destroy the remaining two.

The machine kept spitting out four discs at a time every two seconds and Harpuia was slicing them fiercely as if it was unthinkable to him to miss any one of them.

He raised the difficulty more, to six discs at a time; he had to move around frantically to be able to destroy them all before hitting the wall; slicing, hacking and firing his light purple blades at the discs at incredible speed.

"Stop the program!" Leviathan's familiar voice rang through the hall as she entered.

Harpuia was still standing slicing the last few discs. He was panting heavily from the effort.

"Harpuia..." Leviathan said, "You're pushing yourself too hard, look at you you're exhausted..." she said worriedly.

"I am perfectly fine." Harpuia muttered between breaths, "Why did you stop the program?"

"Look, you've been training too hard. Six discs? I doubt that even Master X could succeed without difficulty at such a high level..." she sounded very concerned.

"Leviathan leave me alone!" Harpuia said harshly, "I'm sorry, I... just need to train."

"You've been here all day long training!" Leviathan said.

"You have been here all last night while you thought we were sleeping! Even Fefnir doubled his training schedule..." Harpuia bellowed.

"Well..." Leviathan said thoughtfully, "I suppose we're all excited about it..."

"What's going on?" Fefnir asked as he opened the door, "How come you two are here, this is my time in the training room!" he protested.

"Don't worry we were just leaving." Leviathan said, "Let's go Harpuia." She said and they exited the hall with a glance back at Fefnir blasting two discs with his powerful arm cannon.

At the resistance base...

Zero was walking around his room impatiently, looking at the floor as the door opened. Cerveau was standing in the doorway.

"Hello." Zero said hollowly his mind still focused on something else.

"Zero, Ciel told me... about Harpuia." Cerveau said, a mild concern in his voice.

"We all trust you Zero, whatever your decision may be. But do you trust _them_ enough to accept their offer?" he asked and Zero stopped pacing around the room.

"They haven't bothered us for a long time now... they let us get away with countless uprisings I think they mean it..." Zero said.

"And what if this is a trap of sort to retire you? We will be completely defenseless against the guardians without you." Cerveau expressed his concern.

"Harpuia won't do that, he's not into dirty tricks." Zero said sharply.

"I see... Well, I think you should at least consider the possibility. I have something for you in my lab, a special device that in case of such a situation will teleport you back to base immediately, like an escape unit." Cerveau said and left the room.

Zero waited for a while considering his words and left; heading for the one man he trusted more than Ciel. Colbor, he had saved him once from Harpuia's clutches and they fought together countless times since then. Eventually becoming good friends.

He entered the elevator and pressed the button for the second floor.

He stared as he passed old Andrew, Andrew waved at him and Zero waved back an empty smile on his face.

The smile turned into a forlorn look as soon as Andrew was out of sight.

The elevator reached its destination, the second level. Zero exited from the right, heading to the soldiers quarters.

He passed the first, second and third doors and knocked on the fourth.

Colbor soon opened his door, and invited Zero inside to a game of chess.

"So Zero I heard that Harpuia offered you..." Zero interrupted the sentence.

"Yes, you heard right. He did but I don't know what to say," he said miserably.

"I see..." Colbor took out one of Zero's pawns with his knight before continuing.

"Just so you would know it doesn't really matter to me what you choose as long as you're happy with it."

Zero sighed and said, "Thanks Colbor you're a real friend but as Cerveau already asked me, what if this is a trap?"

"There is a high chance that this is a trap. But Harpuia already saved your life once so I doubt it." Colbor said, looking at the surprise at Zero's face he added, "Haven't I told you? He was the one that brought you here. I saw him and so did Hirondelle he told you I remember, about seeing a green storm in the sky? That was Harpuia riding Aztec Falcon."

"But why did he...?" before he could finished Colbor answered, "I suggest you ask him that." Zero knocked away Colbor's queen but then Colbor got his bishop. Leaving his king open to attack. Zero was ready for that and he used the castle move, letting the king out of harms way.

Colbor moved one of his pawn away from the king and that was what Zero was waiting for he moved his knight to a point to the right of the king.

Colbor moved his bishop to eat Zero's castle and then Zero scored a checkmate with his second bishop.

"Rats!" Colbor exclaimed, "Good game. I almost had you." He said.

"Thanks Colbor, for your advice and for the game." Zero shook his hand.

"Anytime..." Colbor grinned at him.

"I'll see you later." Zero said as he left Colbor's quarters. He heard Colbor's "See you." behind him as he walked down the corridor towards the elevator again.

"You're right Colbor..." Zero thought, "It can't be a trap. Harpuia saved me once and I saved him once. But I just can't imagine what will happen to the resistance if I accept Harpuia's offer and become the fourth guardian..."

To be continued... 


	2. The decision

Chapter 2: The decision 

Claimer: The four executioners belong to me, and me alone. Any use of those characters without permission will be reported immediately to the Fanfiction staff.

Sorry if I seem harsh but I just don't want anyone changing my characters as he sees fit.

A few days later at Neo-Arcadia...

Harpuia was flying, patrolling the skies above Neo-Arcadia.

He was distracted however his mind was elsewhere...

"I hope Zero says yes, it's pretty hard for only three guardians to keep all of Neo-Arcadia secured. Elpizo destroyed many of our Pantheons (The X-like Neo-Arcadian soldiers) and many of our defenses and we are pretty weak now. And Neo-Arcadia is too big for us to protect only by ourselves. Zero proved himself, he fought to protect Neo-Arcadia and the humans as he did over a century ago with X as a maverick hunter. I just hope he will accept. We really need him now... Especially when our army is so weak." The neo-Arcadian was divided into five regiments until a bit less then a year ago:

The aerial patrol and transport: This force is the air force of Neo-Arcadia an extremely effective and very powerful air force being led by the powerful Harpuia, it consists of reploids that were built and designed for aerial combat, as well as aerial vehicles such as bombers, fighters and Aerial Squadron Transports.

The infantry: A brutal force consisting of a devastating combination of Pantheons, Reploid soldiers, Assault vehicles and siege mechaniloids. Under the command of Fefnir they excel at fighting ground forces and infiltrating enemy bases and fortresses.

The marine fighters: The Neo-Arcadian navy is a capable force consisting of aqua reploids (reploids created to work and fight underwater), Submarines, water mechaniloids and under the command of the fierce Leviathan, who has no match underwater fighting.

The shadow squadron: This elite stealth unit has been disbanded due to the destruction of the guardian Phantom, who trained the reploids himself to become fully-fledged stealth warriors.

And the last was X's guard: Only the strongest, fastest, most disciplined and promising soldiers were accepted into this regiment. Hand picked by Copy X himself, trained by him and enhanced with the most powerful upgrades Neo-Arcadia has to offer. This almost unbeatable force still exists, although all of its members were frozen when Copy X was destroyed and now they are deep within the core of Neo-Arcadia, waiting for the day when they will awake from their frozen state and fight for Neo-Arcadia once again.

At the resistance...

Zero was helping transfer another energy crate to the warehouse along with Autruche.

"I still don't see why they put me in this warehouse! I am not a reploid built for this kind of work. Hibou should be doing this he likes to work..." Autruche's muttering swooped at Zero like a swarm of Melnets (The bee-like mechaniloids)

"Put a lid on it will you?" Zero said, pretty annoyed for the last fifteen minutes Zero was helping him transfer crates of energy crystals to the warehouse. They had received a shipment from an abandoned factory somewhere near the forest of Dysis and all he heard were only Autruche's complaints.

"You don't to be so aggressive..." Autruche mumbled.

Zero sighed and continued with the crate until they reached the others.

"Okay, just put this one here... and voila!" Autruche said. "Thanks for your help Zero, I don't know how much time it would have taken me without you." Autruche thanked him.

"No problem, I was happy to help." Zero lied, he had no trouble carrying the crates but Autruche was bugging him with his constant complaints.

Zero left the warehouse and ran into something, he tripped over it and fell.

When he got up he noticed he tripped over someone, not something.

It was Perroquiet.

"Ugh... my glasses!" Perroquiet exclaimed.

Zero crouched and handed him his glasses.

"Sorry for running into you like that, I didn't see you..." Zero started but was soon interrupted, "I was looking for you actually." Perroquiet said.

"Really? What did you want?" Zero asked curiously.

"I wanted to talk to you about Harpuia's offer." Perroquiet said.

"Oh..." Zero replied, thinking what can Perroquiet say that would change his mind.

"Zero, I know you are going to decline Harpuia's offer but think of the possibilities! If you will become a guardian then you will be able to stop them from attacking the resistance and buy us enough time for Ciel to complete her research and then we won't have to fight them anymore!" Perroquiet said enthusiastically.

Zero had just digested what Perroquiet had just said and realized how stupid he was. He smacked his forehead, if he was to join the guardians Ciel could finish her research uninterrupted and he would be able to protect humans as he so long ago did.

"So will you join them now?" Perroquiet asked.

"Perroquiet, you are a genius! When Ciel finishes her research then it won't matter, I won't have to protect the resistance anymore. You'll be fine because I'll make sure that Neo-Arcadia won't attack you." Zero said, finally he made his decision without any doubts. He would tell Harpuia tomorrow evening.

"Thanks!" he said and ran off to the elevator to tell Ciel.

The next they in the after noon...

A massive crowd of resistance members gathered to say farewell to Zero, including some of Elipzo's subordinates. The others seemed to have fled in shame of what their 'glorious' leader had done.

"Thank you all," Zero said, "I will make sure Neo-Arcadia won't give you any trouble. With some luck it might be best for both us and them that I will become a guardian and thus this rivalry will finally stop." A hail of cheers was heard from the massive crowd. All were chanting his name, "Zero! Zero!"

Half an hour later...

Zero had just left Ciel's quarters after saying goodbye to her, she cried and he promised her he'd visit her once she and the resistance soldiers will go back to Neo-Arcadia.

As he left he passed by Cerveau's lab and he stopped.

"I have something for you in my lab, a special device..." A voice rang in his head.

"No." He thought, "I trust Harpuia, he won't do that." And walked away.

At twilight desert...

Harpuia, Fefnir and Leviathan were standing in the dunes watching the sunset.

"Isn't it beautiful?" Asked Leviathan, enchanted by the view of the sun setting behind the sea of dunes.

"Yes..." Harpuia said, also charmed by the sight.

"We don't get to see these moments much anymore..." Leviathan said sorrowfully.

"We're just too busy to do stupid stuff like this." Fefnir said, his arms crossed on his chest.

"Well when is Zero coming anyway? I can't wait forever!" he complained.

"He should be here within the hour." Said Harpuia.

"Ahem..." a small cough drew their attention.

They looked back at the source and immediately three reploids jumped in front of them, landing in their battle poses.

Each of them was standing in front of a guardian they measured each other up.

Harpuia's adversary was an aerial reploid he had never seen before:

The reploid's armor was solid black, Harpuia thought that he might be meant for night fighting, that would leave him at a disadvantage due to his bright color.

His helmet had a golden V embedded and had a helmet which covered the head completely, with two wide slits for eyes. The eyes that stared at him were emerald green like his but cold.

The torso was decorated with another golden V and on the back were attached two jetpack rockets in the design of large wings.

The greaves were very similar to Harpuia's own, only a v-shaped armor there.

The boots were spiked, should he receive a kick from them he would probably be heavily injured.

He held in his hand what seemed like a double-edged beam saber. But it wasn't powered yet.

Leviathan's adversary was also female, with Sapphire blue eyes, her dark blue armor made her resemble a shark:

Her helmet was decorated with a fin, so was her back.

Her face were very handsome and for an embarrassing moment Leviathan thought that she was prettier then herself. But then reminded herself that she might be an enemy. The female reploid smiled a dark smile and clenched her fist on the great harpoon in her hand.

Her torso supported her breasts, which were bigger than Leviathan's and had a carved gem embedded below them.

Her greaves were just like Leviathan's v-shaped.

She wore regular boots. Decorated with several gems and pearls.

Fefnir's adversary was even bigger and more muscled than he was:

A large gem on the forehead of his helmet,

His massive armor was sure to give him great protection.

One of his hands was a ball of spikes, and the other was gauntleted.

His torso was wide and thick, providing better armor than Fefnir's.

His greaves were v-shaped as well. The same man probably designed the three.

His boots were large and the sole was jagged a kick from him would probably smash a metal wall.

Fefnir's only advantage was probably his speed, since the reploid wore so much armor he would probably be very slow.

Behind the three stood a reploid clad in golden armor.

The armor blinded them as it reflected the glow of the sun so they couldn't get a good look at it.

"Guardians. We have been expecting you. Meet my three associates: Vulture," he gestured at Harpuia's counterpart, "Whirlpool," he gestured at Leviathan's counterpart, "And last but really not least Daemon. We are the four executioners. Have fun." And with those words he vanished, leaving the six alone.

Vulture powered his saber, Whirlpool twirled her harpoon and pointed it at Leviathan and Daemon's spike ball landed in a thud on the sand and a chain was running from the hand socket to it.

Three quarters of an hour later...

Zero had just transferred to the coordinates that Harpuia told him to transfer and a horrific sight was in front of him:

The dunes were covered with red fluids and several internal parts were scattered around the area.

A trail of red fluid led to a dune, upon the dune Zero saw another terrifying sight.

Leviathan, impaled through her chest on a harpoon of sort that was stuck in the ground, red fluids still running from the wound and from her mouth, she was still alive.

Zero ran over to her and crouched near her pierced body.

"Leviathan... What happened?" he asked.

"They..." she coughed, "Too strong... Harpuia and Fefnir..." and she lost her consciousness.

"No!" Zero said, but Leviathan was still alive, maybe there's still time.

"Transfer from coordinates..." Zero delivered Leviathan's coordinates and she transferred away.

The trail of blood continued and Zero followed it pas the dune, where he saw the shattered form of Fefnir's legs.

He ran further and found Fefnir's torso, he went mad and kept talking to himself as if not noticing Zero was there.

"Fefnir? Fefnir!" Zero yelled, but in vain as Fefnir just kept talking to himself incomprehensibly.

"Operator another one at..." Zero said Fefnir's coordinates and he too disappeared in a flash of light.

The trail of blood got thicker, and stopped at the foothills of a massive dune, on top of it was Harpuia, still standing but his arm was missing and slash marks were all over his armor, he was probably left for dead like the others but managed to get up.

"Harpuia!" Zero yelled and ran up to him, to support him.

"I'm fine..." he grimaced and coughed some red fluid.

"Are Leviathan and Fefnir...?" he asked.

"I don't know, I transferred them to the base... what happened here?"

"Executioners... They were so strong, so strong it was unbelievable." Harpuia said, his voice distant.

"Transfer us operator!" Zero yelled into his comm. And they were transferred back to base, where two reploids carried Harpuia into the maintenance bay.

"This is horrible!" Ciel cried on Zero's shoulder.

"Who... who could have done that, especially to the three of them...?" she sobbed.

"I don't know, I guess we'll have to wait and find out..."

Meanwhile at another place...

"We have dispatched of them." Vulture said to the golden clad reploid.

"Excellent form!" he said, "You can use the facilities today because you have done such a good job!"

"Thank you." Vulture Whirlpool and Daemon said in unison and left.

To be continued...


	3. NeoArcadian vengeance

Author notes: Yes I have played Megaman Zero 3, the European version and I know what happens. But as you soon will see it all really fits. Read on.   
  
Chapter 3: Neo-Arcadian vengeance 

The next morning...

"I want you guys to sweep this desert. Anything unusual goes straight to me. That includes footprints, foreign objects and signs of struggle." Zero commanded, the resistance soldiers acknowledged and started to search the desert.

Zero followed the same path of 'blood' that he followed yesterday.

He reached the first dune and a flashback of Leviathan's impaled body came to his mind.

He crouched near the 'bloodiest' spot where Leviathan's body was lying, but there was nothing to be found there but some of Leviathan's parts and the 'blood'.

He stood up again and kept following the trail of red fluids until he reached, Fefnir legs; a soldier was just picking them up.

"Anything soldier?" he asked.

"No sir, nothing foreign or any signs of struggle. Whoever did this sure is good at hiding his tracks." The soldier replied.

"Transfer those to base, Cerveau will need those to reattach to Fefnir." Zero ordered, more trying to get the soldier away than from concern for Fefnir's legs.

"Yes sir. Transfer me to base..." The soldier said in his comm. And in a flash of white light he was gone.

Zero inspected the ground, the soldier was right; even though it is clear that the legs were shattered in this place there were no signs of struggle.

"Hmm..." Zero said and kept following the path of red fluid until he reached where Fefnir's body was, he remembered hard what was there last night and a flashback of Fefnir jumped into his head. He was mumbling to himself, acting as if he was crazy.

Zero thoroughly looked around and searched for anything that might identify the assailant but there was nothing there at all, nothing to identify whoever the attacker was or where he was.

Zero was getting pretty desperate, if there was only a clue... any clue...

When he reached the massive dune he found Harpuia on he saw Colbor inspecting the place.

"Zero, I'm glad you're here base just informed me they analyzed that harpoon thing." Colbor said, "It's dispensable, meaning whoever used it can either make or summon any number of it imaginable." He explained.

"Anything else?" Zero asked, a flicker of hope within him.

"Well the design is unfamiliar to them but Ciel is comparing it to other reploids' weapons so she might be able to find out who this belongs to." He said.

"Good, anything here?" Zero inquired, not that it mattered if Ciel found the reploid using the harpoon.

"No, nothing." Colbor simply said.

Suddenly their communicators lit up and the operators voice was heard,

"All troopers to base, Zero please report to the commanders room immediately."

Zero looked at Colbor, who nodded and they both were transferred back to base.

Zero entered the commander's room with him to see Ciel, a shocked look on her face.

"Zero, we just transferred Harpuia, Leviathan and Fefnir to Neo-Arcadia." She said, a tear running on her cheek.

"They are still alive but we can't repair them here. They have been damaged badly so we gave them over to Neo-Arcadia and they..." she stopped and looked at the ground.

"They don't believe us... they said we set them up and... they are going to destroy us..." more tears ran down Ciel's cheek.

"What?!" Zero yelled, "I must get over there!"

"It's no use... they have already started moving their forces towards us..." Ciel said calmly, as if she was certain that this was it.

"No I won't let them do this!" Zero said and turned to operator.

"Transfer me to their forces now!" he screamed.

The operator didn't respond and in a second Zero was gone in a flash.

Zero materialized in front of the thousands of Pantheons and reploids that wished to destroy him.

"Stop now!" he said, the forces were lead by an unfamiliar reploid:

He was at least as twice as bigger than Zero, and he was an animal-like reploid, meaning instead of resembling humans (Like the four guardians, X, Zero and the executioners...) they resembled animalistic humanoids, they were called Mutos reploids, they were high ranking members of the Neo-Arcadian army.

The one in front of Zero resembled a large hyena, wielding something that looked quite similar to Zero's shield boomerang and what Zero suspected was his old Triple rod, that he dropped in the desert after escaping X's fortress.

"I am Hyena Hahira, I am the leader of X's guard, hand picked and personally trained by him. You have insolently set up the guardians and almost destroyed them. They are now being cared for by Neo-Arcadia." The reploid said.

"We transferred them to you! We saved their lives, they wanted me to become the fourth guardian but when I arrived in the meeting place they have already been attacked!" Zero yelled boldly. Seeing as the reploid in front of him was much more threatening.

"Liar! The guardians would never appoint a Maverick to become a guardian!" Hyena said.

Before Hyena could react Zero was upon him, the fact that this pathetic reploid even dared to challenge him and call him a Maverick hit a certain spot Zero was uncertain about. He didn't understand why he was so mad, he still haven't recovered all of his memories and figured it was something that happened a long time ago but what really surprised him was his thoughts, pathetic reploid? Zero can't remember ever thinking something like that before...

Zero jumped and slashed Hyena's face furiously with his sword.

He landed on the ground and quickly jumped backwards, to a safer distance.

Hyena felt the burning slash mark on his muzzle and bared his teeth.

"Errurgh!" He let out a roar before charging at Zero, trying to hit him with his triple rod but Zero dodged.

Zero dodged another strike when suddenly he was hit in the face by Hyena's shield boomerang.

He fell backwards and rolled away just in time to avoid a sharp chop from Hyena's triple rod.

Zero tried to kick Hyena's leg to make him fall, but he wasn't strong enough.

"Rats!" he said as he dodged yet another chop from Hyena, he jumped to his legs and quickly dash-slashed Hyena's arm, he turned around only to dodge the shield boomerang and then a stab from the triple rod.

He jumped slightly backwards but Hyena extended the triple rod and scraped Zero's knee.

"Ugh!" Zero rubbed the wound and focused on the battle again.

All of the soldiers and Pantheons watched the battle, mesmerized.

Zero decided he had to take out either the boomerang or the triple rod so he drew his chain rod and purposely missed Hyena; he relied on a memory about hyenas and hoped he was right.

Hyena laughed, "Ha he! You missed you pathetic Maverick!" Hyena started laughing.

Zero hoped for that, and seized the opportunity to make a certain action very carefully

Without Hyena noticing Zero slowly pulled the chain until it grasped the shield boomerang's metal center and then he pulled so tightly that the chain rod tore the center and the shield broke.

Hyena stopped laughing and grabbed the chain of the rod. Zero pulled it back and the energy tip of the chain sliced one of Hyena's fingers.

"Aargh!" Hyena yelled and grasped his index finger that was cut off.

"Get him!" he yelled, and thus all of the reploids and Pantheons charged at Zero.

Zero disappeared in a white flash just before they reached him and was back in the resistance base.

"What were you thinking?" Ciel asked furiously.

"You can't just take on all of Neo-Arcadia's army!" she seemed to be crying out of concern.

"Ciel, if I won't stop them they'll destroy the base." Zero said sharply.

"No they won't, look it's been awhile and we can take care of ourselves!" Colbor who Zero had not noticed was behind him.

"Look there are many of us now, we have two towers with two excellent gunmen and we can hold them off until the guardians get better and order them to stop."

Zero sighed and he left the room probably to go to the gates and wait until the enemies come near.

A few hours later at Neo-Arcadia...

"Have you finished reattaching Fefnir's legs yet?" A maintenance reploid asked.

"Almost, have you finished with Leviathan?" the other replied.

"I'm just about to reactivate her... There!" the first exclaimed.

Leviathan opened her eyes, she realized where she was and got up with a start.

"Oh no! Fefnir and Harpuia they...!" She exclaimed but relaxed as she saw Fefnir and Harpuia on the tables beside her.

"What happened?" She asked the maintenance reploid.

"Those Mavericks set you up! They sent us to you and you were wrecks. So Hyena Hahira of X's guard took command and should by attacking their base now..." Leviathan, who just noticed her helmet was ruined and was twirling her cyan hair jumped.

"It weren't them! I must get there and stop Hyena!" she said and ran out of the room.

"Well, I'll just work on Harpuia now..." the maintenance reploid said nonchalantly as if he didn't care if the resistance was guilty or not.

At the resistance base...

Zero stood in front of the resistance soldiers, serving as a first defense line.

He sliced and hacked, slashed and cut and blasted and blew up every Pantheon and reploid he could, while the soldiers behind him shot at anyone who managed to slip past him.

But now Hyena stood in front of him, his index finger was torched back into place, leaving a large scar around it.

"You will pay!" he yelled and drew a weapon, not any weapon Zero has encountered before. It was a beam axe or something similar. A long metal shaft that on top of it was a sphere from which emanated two energy axe heads making some sort of battle-axe.

Hyena charged with a roar and swung at Zero, Zero jumped backwards and the axe hit the ground creating a rather large slit in it with a hiss of his beam axe.

He swung again this time horizontally so Zero had to duck, Zero used the opportunity to dash at Hyena and to slash his side with his beam saber.

Hyena roared but there was no red fluid spilled, he must have more armor than Zero thought because the slash wound was pretty deep.

Hyena turned around and tried apparently to whack Zero with the axe but as Zero jumped sideways he noticed the axe's energy heads detached and were zooming his way. He did a backwards somersault to avoid the energy head and he noticed that it slashed through some resistance soldiers as well as Pantheons.

"He doesn't care who he kills!" Zero said to no one in particular as he dodged another swipe of the axe.

Zero drew his buster, deciding it was best to attack from range and shot a couple of rounds at Hyena. The bullets just bounced off Hyena's body and he laughed,

"A buster can't help you now Maverick!" And to his surprise Zero had slashed his left leg.

"Stop calling me Maverick, scum!" Zero yelled at him.

Hyena roared and placed his hand on his leg.

Zero noticed every Pantheon and reploid stopped fighting the resistance soldiers and they all cleared the way for Leviathan. Her cyan hair fluttering behind her due to the speed she ran in.

She stepped between him and Zero and talked,

"Hyena!" She yelled at him, "Cease this immediately! They didn't attack us, how dared you authorize this attack before you waited for us to recover!?" she scolded.

Hyena was however raging and pushed Leviathan out of the way, in order to attack Zero.

He was destroyed before he even reached Zero, the soldiers and Pantheons all opened fire on him, for attacking Leviathan, and he was already badly injured so when he reached Zero he was nothing but a deactivated pile of scrap.

Leviathan stood up and said,

"Everyone transfer back to Neo-Arcadia immediately." She ordered.

Every soldier and Pantheon transferred away in brilliant flashes of white.

"Is the offer to become a guardian still stands?" Zero asked.

"Yes, why?" Leviathan asked.

"Because I accept." Zero said.

To be continued...

Author notes:

So you see? They didn't even know they were in the resistance base.

Harpuia was too badly injured to remember that Zero told him that he transferred Leviathan and Fefnir to the resistance base and Neo-Arcadia would never tell them that the resistance saved them. Instead they simply said that Zero found them and informed Neo-Arcadia.


	4. The pyramid

Chapter 4: The pyramid 

Zero and Leviathan both were transferred into Neo-Arcadia, Zero didn't expect a welcome. But when he arrived there was a large number of reploids to see him.

Even though he knew they had despised him they still considered him a legend, he defeated Copy X, he was a famous Maverick hunter and fought many times against many enemies and he has survived so much wars and battles that he was considered to be immortal.

Zero felt the stares he just followed Leviathan. The guardians had apparently set him his own quarters. She led him inside and asked him to wait there, and then she took off leaving him to look at his surroundings:

There was much more room in his quarters that he could ever fill up. There was a large cabinet adjacent to the door and a mirror in the opposite wall.

A large bed decorated the western wall, (Left from the entrance) and above it there was a magnifying picture frame (insert a picture in any size and the frame magnified it to fit it). There was a bedside dresser where he could put alarm clocks or anything else he could imagine.

The eastern part was a doorway leading to another room. A personal repair station:

In case of minor wounds, armor cleaning and weapon fixing when you don't trust the mechanic or maintenance reploid.

"I'll be using this a lot..." Zero said out loud to no one.

He looked down at the scrape Hyena gave him and decided to patch it up.

He entered the repair station and a robotic voice said, "Enter capsule and scanning will initiate." Zero entered a capsule in the middle of the room and a metallic object with a wide rectangle lens started examining him. A yellow light moved all over his body and then the robotic voice announced, "Damage minimal... proceeding with repairs..." some sort of device exited from a gap in the top of the capsule and went down to Zero's knee and started to work on repairing it. It took a minute until it was finished and then the robotic voice said, "Armor cleaning in process..." the capsule immediately filled with some sort of cleaning liquid, that soaked Zero's hair and then through a slit drained down to the sewers.

Zero squeezed his hair dry and surprisingly a hair fan dropped from the gap above and dried his hair completely.

The capsule then opened and Zero went out, he felt great.

He went and looked at himself in the mirror: his hair was neat and in a ponytail as always but it shined, so did his armor. It was actually clean, no dust or dirt in it. It shined and looked great.

Leviathan just entered the room and beckoned him to come with her.

"Listen, there isn't much time. We won't wait for Harpuia and Fefnir to recover. We have located a few abandoned locations near where we were attacked that recently had become active, so we'll go and check them out." She explained as they entered a large and round room, operators clicking on computers all around it.

"Right, the first place is a pyramid ruin. Reconnaissance photos show there are a number of vehicles hid around it, so you and I are going to check it out." Leviathan described the first mission Zero had as a guardian and on a large screen that appeared in the middle of the room were many pictures and floor plans of the pyramid.

"Understood?" Leviathan asked.

Zero nodded and Leviathan pulled out a wrist comm.

"Here, this is our wrist comm. If you need to contact base for reinforcements or for transfer you'll use this. And you'll receive mission objectives with it too." Leviathan installed it in Zero's arm.

"Okay operator transfer us." She informed and just before they transferred Zero managed to ask "Us?"

They arrived outside the pyramid; Zero and Leviathan were looking at the towering triangle in awe.

"What about your helmet?" Zero asked,

"I don't really need it, I just use it underwater so my hair won't get in the way." Leviathan answered and took a step closer to the pyramid.

Zero followed her and they were just about to enter the pyramid when something odd happened: Zero was sure he saw a red Blur in the corner of his eyes. But when he looked there was nothing there.

"Odd..." he said to himself, however Leviathan heard him.

"What?" she asked, following Zero's gaze.

"I was sure I saw something in the corner of my eye but it vanished..." Zero answered quickly.

"Let's just get going, we really should get inside." Leviathan said and turned back to the pyramid, she was about to take a step towards it but Zero pulled her back from her shoulders.

"What the...?" she asked.

"Trap." Zero simply said and pointed to a bear trap hidden behind a thin coat of sand.

"Thanks, could've cost me my leg... I really should be more careful." Leviathan said in embarrassment.

"Ruins like this are filled with traps." Zero said and went forward, slashing the trap with his beam saber.

"Let's go." He beckoned at Leviathan and she followed.

They entered the pyramid, walking along the first long corridor. Ignoring the occasional hieroglyphs that warned them of curses and traps.

Zero had a strange feeling that he was being followed, he turned around occasionally to look behind him but there was nothing there.

After the fifth time it happened Leviathan lost her temper,

"Will you quit doing that?!" she asked annoyed, her eyes shifting from Zero to where he was looking.

"I'm telling you there's something here!" Zero said,

"Well my sensors are not warning me of any high energy levels besides ourselves. So forget about it already!" She yelled.

"Shush!" Zero clapped his hand over her mouth.

"If there _is _someone here we don't want them to hear us now do we?" Zero said.

He lowered his hand and continued down the corridor.

Leviathan sighed and followed, but as she turned around she though she saw something. She shrugged it off and followed Zero.

There was a fork, left right and straight ahead.

"Let's go right." Zero said after some thinking.

"Shouldn't we split?" Leviathan asked, Zero's plan had made no sense. They could cover much more ground if they split up.

"If, one of us finds the reploids who attacked you; then we should be together because alone they would surely destroy us." Zero explained.

"I see..." Leviathan understood and followed Zero to the right.

They reached a whole new corridor, lined up with statues; their mouths open wide and their hands holding bows.

Zero took a step forwards but just as his floor touched the ground two statues spit out arrows at him, he jumped backwards and the arrows broke on the floor.

"Rats! A trap." Zero exclaimed.

"Wait I know, look do you still have that chain rod?" she asked Zero.

"Yes, why what is it... oh I understand." He said and pulled out his chain rod.

He shot it at the ceiling and it grabbed on.

"Hold on to me." He said to Leviathan and grabbed her around the midsection.

He took a running start and jumped, the chain stretched farther and farther. They were just past the last two statues and Zero let go of the ceiling, they soared the rest of the way until both landed safely on the other side.

"Great idea." Said Zero.

"Thanks, let's move on." Leviathan answered blushing mildly; the strongest and smartest reploid she knew (and he was pretty handsome too) just said she had a great idea. She followed from behind him, looking at the hieroglyphs.

They walked on for what seemed like at least an hour with many twisting corridors until they reached a large room filled with sand.

As soon as they entered it a door rose up from the ground and blocked the way back.

From the sand emerged a figure; whether it was a human or reploid they couldn't tell because of the black cloak he or she was wearing.

Suddenly the man spoke in a chilling voice: "Forward and forward I go, never looking back. My limit no one knows, more of me do they lack. Like a river I do flow, and an eagle I fly.

Now guess if you can and tell me what am I?

But if you guess wrong then you will die."

Zero looked at Leviathan and she stared back.

"Forward and forward I go, never looking back..." Zero mumbled.

"My limit no one knows, more of me do they lack..." Leviathan continued.

"Like a river I do flow, and an eagle I fly." Zero ran the words in his head.

"Now guess if you can and tell me what am I..." Leviathan finished.

The chamber then started filling with sand from every corner, the sand level was rising quickly but the figure didn't move it stayed exactly as it was.

"Oh no... We have to think!" Leviathan said with a fright as the sand reached her boots.

"I know I know!" Zero said and thought frantically of anything that might match the description that the riddle stated.

"Rats!" Leviathan said, "I can't think of anything that might be right!" Leviathan yelled in panic as the sand already reached her hips.

"Grr... what can it be?!" Zero yelled in frustration.

"Zero we kind of lack the time to get mad!" Leviathan yelled as her chest was covered in sand.

"Wait a minute..." Zero said and concentrated.

"Time flies when you're having fun." He said suddenly.

"Do I look like I'm having fun?!" Leviathan yelled as her neck was buried.

"We lack time... time flies... time has no limit... the answer is time!" Zero said, as soon as the word time left his lips for the last time the sand stopped.

The figure disappeared and the sand level started to lower.

"Time! Of course, I should have thought about that..." Leviathan said wiping her arms of sand.

"Lucky you thought of it." She smiled at him in relief.

"Only because you told me I lacked the time to get mad." Zero said.

Leviathan smiled and was about to say something when a stone door groaned and started to slide downwards.

It wasn't the door they had come from, it was another door leading to a tremendous room, in the opposite end of the door stood a giant statue of Thoth; the god of Wisdom, Time, Writing and the Moon. 

Before the statue stood a reploid clad in red armor, horns decorated his helmet and one of his hands was a ball of spikes. It was Daemon.

Next to him stood another, a reploid with the body of a human but an ibis-like head the reploid was wielding a beam scythe Zero vaguely remembered seeing a scythe resembling this before but couldn't recall where.

"I see you have arrived earlier than I had expected. I am quite surprised you managed to solve the riddle I applaud you Zero and Leviathan but this is as far as you go. Meet Thoth, of the master's making. It's a shame really I had hoped that Neo-Arcadia would destroy the resistance before you guardians can recover. Now play nice." Daemon disappeared in a flash of white as he said the last three words and now Zero and Leviathan were facing Thoth. Thoth raised his scythe and held it with both of his hands and his eyes gleamed in gold.

Zero and Leviathan assumed their battle poses. And Zero could feel in his synthetic skin that this will be a difficult battle.

To be continued...


	5. The battle against Thoth and an unlikely...

Chapter 5: The battle against Thoth and an unlikely ally 

"Get ready, if this guy is even half as tough as those executioners I guarantee that it won't be easy even with the two of us." Leviathan muttered silently, so Thoth wouldn't hear.

Zero nodded and looked at his opponent:

An Egyptian crown decorated his head, his face were that of an ibis. The animal symbol of the Egyptian god Thoth, it symbolized wisdom, as its sharp beak resembles a pen.

The torso was armored only in the chest area, an armor connecting to the Egyptian crown, painted golden and dark blue.

The abdomen was coated with a thin white rubber-like substance, and the greaves were a golden v-shaped armor.

Instead of boots were sharp bird-of-prey and razor-sharp claws.

His weapon was a beam scythe, a long shaft that emanated a long curved blade from a rectangle device attached to the top of the shaft.

Thoth's eyes were glowing gold, which gave him an even eerier look.

Zero was ready and willing with his beam saber, and Leviathan was grasping her battle staff tightly.

Thoth charged at them, his scythe raised and ready to strike.

Zero was ready to act, as soon as Thoth tried to cleave at him jumped in the air, slashed Thoth's upper back with his saber and leaped as far away as he could as Thoth tried to slice him in two with his scythe.

But while Thoth was busy with Zero Leviathan thrust her battle staff at him and hit him square between the shoulder blades, the sharp edge of her staff didn't pierce Thoth as she intended and in an instant Thoth jabbed her in the face with the bottom of his scythe and she got thrown back a couple of feet away from Thoth's sheer strength.

Zero studied Thoth carefully; their attacks haven't even produced a scratch mark on Thoth's armor.

Thoth seemed to be studying Zero as well, but Zero wouldn't give him that much. He blitzed him before he could move and while jumping in the air he stretched his leg and booted him in the chest.

Thoth lost his balance and stumbled backwards where Leviathan who managed to get up tripped him.

A second before Thoth hit the floor he disappeared and reappeared next to Zero, punching Zero's face, and causing him to fall backwards and slide a meter or so on the floor.

"How did he...?" Leviathan barely managed to ask before Thoth yet again disappeared and reappeared next to her.

She gasped and was about to slam her staff into him but he was too quick and caught her by her neck, he then threw her across the room and into the wall seemingly knocking her out.

Zero meanwhile got up and charged up his shield boomerang. He threw it at Thoth but Thoth disappeared again and reappeared behind Zero.

Zero whirled around to kick Thoth but Thoth disappeared and his own shield boomerang hit the bewildered Zero because Thoth distracted him and he didn't pay any attention to it.

Zero fell face forward and heard a beam weapon power up behind him. He quickly rolled sideways to avoid a fatal hit by Thoth's scythe and blocked the second hit with his beam saber.

They stared at each other's eyes a power struggle ensued. Thoth had the advantage but Zero had to admit even without an advantage Zero could feel that Thoth was stronger than him. He was fighting a losing battle.

Thoth managed to push Zero's beam saber to his throat when suddenly something blasted him on the side and he flew across the room.

"Oh no you don't!" Aztec Falcon exclaimed.

"Aztec Falcon, what are you...?" Zero asked.

"I called him here, he'll help us." Leviathan said and helped Zero up.

"Are you okay master Zero?" Aztec Falcon asked with a great amount of respect in his voice.

"Yes thank you very much, he's too strong. All of our attacks didn't even scratch his armor!" Zero said.

"Wait a minute..." Leviathan said, "Fire on ice, ice on lightning and lightning on fire." She mumbled, Zero immediately understood. But he didn't have any of his elemental chips installed at the moment. But then he realized.

"Falcon, you're lightning! That's why you managed to blow him away." Zero said.

Thoth also understood this and was about to charge at Aztec Falcon when Zero blocked him and received a very painful punch in the face from Thoth.

"Leviathan protect Falcon!" he yelled as he tried to slice Thoth in retaliation.

"Right!" Leviathan acknowledged and stood next to him with her staff ready.

Thoth disappeared again and reappeared next to Falcon.

Leviathan punched Thoth before he could attack Falcon and Falcon blasted him with his electric attack, blowing him into a wall.

"Finish him!" Zero yelled, wiping the red fluid that ran out from his mouth.

Falcon was about to fire another electric blast but just before he could Thoth disappeared and punched Leviathan's face.

Thoth powered up his axe and tried to cleave at Falcon but Falcon ducked and punched Thoth in the abdomen, after all of the blows that Thoth had received his armor finally gave and Falcon's wing pierced his torso.

Thoth looked down in sheer terror and then back at Falcon, shaking his head as if begging Falcon not to destroy him.

Falcon chuckled and nodded tauntingly and then fired a final electric attack at Thoth who blasted in a brilliant orange explosion.

A fire chip fell on the floor and Zero picked it up,

"This could be handy."

"Great job Falcon, Harpuia would be proud. I'll tell him when he wakes up." Leviathan congratulated Falcon and pet Falcon's beak.

Zero went forwards and said, "Thank you Falcon, we couldn't have done it without you."

"Thank you Zero, you were great. I was honored to fight by your side." Falcon said.

Suddenly the ground started shaking.

"The pyramid is caving in!" Zero said.

"Operator?" Leviathan said to her comm. And all disappeared with a white flash.

The three were back in Neo-Arcadia. The operators who watched the battle all applauded and congratulated them, especially Falcon who Zero thought deserved it.

As Falcon went to visit Harpuia Leviathan escorted Zero back to his quarters.

"Was it me or was Falcon nice to me?" Zero asked.

"Yes he was." Leviathan answered with a smile, still thinking about the battle. She fought against Zero but never with him. She thought he was great; he was smart he had plenty of tricks and was completely unafraid.

"Odd... if someone would have destroyed me I wouldn't be so nice to him." Zero said and made Leviathan laugh.

"Oh Falcon is just so devoted to Harpuia that he doesn't care. If Harpuia thinks you should be a guardian than Falcon would treat you as he treats us." Leviathan explained.

"I see... there is something about that Thoth that confused me." Zero stated, "He could disappear and reappear elsewhere, did he short distance teleported?" he asked.

"No, he stopped time." Leviathan said.

"But if he could stop time than why didn't he just stopped it completely and destroyed us while we were frozen?" Zero inquired with curiosity.

"I assume because it was a short term time freeze and he had to charge it every time so he couldn't use it like that." Leviathan said thoughtfully.

They reached Zero's quarters, Zero shook Leviathan's hand and said,

"It was a pleasure to work with you on my first mission as a guardian Leviathan. I hope that we will fight side by side again soon. It is a refreshing change from fighting each other." Leviathan beamed at him and mentioned,

"You should use the personal repair station. You're a mess."

"I will, how I look is nothing to how I feel." Zero replied there was nothing he could say about her. Even in her worn and filthy state she was still beautiful.

"Well, tomorrow morning we'll go on the second mission so rest up," Leviathan said and left.

Zero entered his quarters and closed the door; he looked at himself in the mirror;

Leviathan was right, he was a mess his hair was filthy and untidy, his face were stained with his 'blood' and he was full of dirt.

He entered the repair station that once again fixed him and cleaned his armor and then dried his hair.

He stepped down from the capsule brushed his ponytail with his hand.

He went to his bed and looked up at the picture frame.

He pulled up from inside of his boot a folded drawing of his that Aluette made him.

"_Here Zero! I made this for you." She said enthusiastically and gave him a drawing._

It looked like him but was scribbled and very out of scale and some parts like his hands and legs were just sticks.

He smiled and placed it in the picture frame. The picture then magnified so that the drawing was big enough to fit the frame.

Zero fell on his bed; he fell asleep without even removing his armor.

Meanwhile at somewhere unknown...

"Thoth has failed, but they needed to be three in order to take him down." Daemon said.

The golden clad reploid chuckled and said,

"And Whirlpool's reploid, is he ready?" he asked.

"Yes, she is just fitting him with all he needs." Daemon answered.

"It's good that our generous master grants us those powerful reploids so we can shape them as we please." The reploid said.

"Yes he creates them as plain reploids so we can make them look and be exactly as we want them to be. He builds the foundations and we build the building itself." Daemon said.

"Tell Vulture to start working on his reploid right now. Master can't stand delays." The reploid ordered.

"He has already started, he is working feverishly on it. He didn't use the facilities yesterday because he was too busy working on it." Daemon reported.

"Good, dismissed." The golden reploid said and Daemon left the room.

"We won't disappoint you master." He said to no one in particular and left into the shadows.

To be continued...


	6. Duels in the training room

Author notes: I want to make something clear Aztec Falcon is alive!

In the beginning of Megaman Zero 2, after Zero destroyed the scorpion mechaniloid Harpuia arrives at Zero's location riding on AZTEC FALCON. Pay closer attention to details, there is even a drawn scene that portrays Harpuia towering above Zero and behind him is Aztec Falcon. Take a visit to the Megaman Zero 2 cut-scene section of Sprites inc. if you don't believe me.

Chapter 6: Duels in the training room 

Zero woke up slowly; sleeping in his armor wasn't a bright idea. His whole body ached and his sleep was really uncomfortable.

He got up and looked at his comm. It showed the time was five in the morning.

Zero sighed and walked up to his door, he looked out through the lens to see if there was any activity in the corridor and startled as he saw Leviathan was about to ring his bell.

He quickly opened his door and startled Leviathan, she calmed down and asked him,

"How did you know...?"

"I was just looking through the lens." Zero answered, pointing with his hand backwards at the door.

"Well, I just wanted to ask you if you wanted to join me in some friendly sparing..." Leviathan said her voice lowering in the last three words.

"Sure," Zero agreed, "I'll be happy to actually."

Leviathan brightened up, "Oh," she said, "Well follow me okay?"

Zero walked alongside her and a thought popped into his head.

"Say Leviathan, do you remember anything about those executioners. Their names maybe?"

"I remember two names, Whirlpool and Daemon, there was also a black one but I can't remember his name..." she scratched her chin as she spoke, "I think it was some sort of bird..."

"Have you ever seen them before?" Zero inquired further, hoping that she will say yes. Otherwise it might be even worse than he imagined.

"No, the weird thing about them was that they fought and looked as if they were built solely to destroy us." Leviathan said, now twirling her hair with her finger.

"I see... I hoped you'd say yes, it would have made things so much easier." Zero confessed.

Leviathan seemed sad for a moment and then as if considering whether to tell Zero or not, she then let it out:

"Zero, listen..." She hesitated, "Well, do you umm... think that we'll be able to beat those executioners? I mean, well it did take both of us and Aztec Falcon to take down one of their minions so what'll we do when we'll have to face them in person?" Leviathan said worriedly, lowering her gaze to look at her crossed fingers.

"Leviathan, I confess I have never seen a reploid as tough as Thoth was and I'm pretty sure that Daemon is at least ten times stronger than him. But don't be discouraged, we will defeat them." Zero reassured her.

Leviathan raised her eyes and smiled at him, suddenly she seemed like her normal and playful self again.

"Well here's the training room... Fefnir!" Leviathan exclaimed as the pink clad warrior exited from the room.

"Fefnir." Zero nodded, and so did Fefnir.

"So Zero, I see you finally wised up and joined us before I could defeat you." Fefnir said and laughed heartily.

"You want to test that theory?" Zero asked, a grin on his face.

"I've been training hard for this!" Fefnir said and turned his hand into his cannon, he beckoned Zero to follow him and they entered the training room, rudely shutting Leviathan out.

"Why I ought to..." Leviathan said and entered an adjacent room from which she could see the battle.

"Those two... men!" she said in disgust, "It was I who invited Zero for a duel not that arrogant battle creep!" Leviathan said, even though she didn't mean it. In fact she was very glad Fefnir was all right.

"Fefnir would lose it is so obvious!" she muttered to herself again.

"And you would win?" A voice behind her startled her.

She turned around and saw a very welcome sight of a green armored reploid.

"Harpuia! They finished both of you?" Leviathan said and beamed, pleased to see her leader and partner healthy again.

"So I see that Zero has agreed," Harpuia said.

"Hyena tried to kill him, it might be a good idea to disband X's guard... their reliability has gotten low." Leviathan said.

"Hyena was an arrogant fool, bent on vengeance after Zero destroyed master X. he was one of the reasons we froze X's guard in the first place. But we need them, they are powerful reploids and we can't just let them go I'm afraid..." Harpuia explained.

"The executioners have their own reploids..." Leviathan started.

"Yes I know Aztec Falcon briefed me about your mission." Harpuia said, "Interesting, Anubis Necromansess the third was the only Egyptian god reploid I knew of but then again, I have never heard of those executioners either." Harpuia said.

"You know, it was funny fighting _alongside_ Zero. I mean, he retired master X and well many of our reploids not to mention defeating us. But he also destroyed Phantom..." with those words Harpuia place his index finger on Leviathan's lips and said, "Phantom kamikaze attacked Zero to protect master X and you know that. Zero wouldn't have retired him." Harpuia said harshly.

"You're right, I'm sorry... It's just I miss him sometimes." Leviathan said.

"I miss him too, especially how he used to frighten Fefnir." Harpuia and Leviathan smirked when they suddenly heard and explosion from the training room.

Zero had just blasted Fefnir with Thoth's fire chip and his Z-buster and Fefnir crashed against the wall.

"That chip is so powerful..." Fefnir said as he stood up.

He shot three fireballs at Zero who easily dodged them as always and delivered an attack with his chain rod.

The chain rod wrapped around Fefnir's leg and Zero pulled, causing Fefnir to fall down.

Zero jumped very quickly and landed on top of Fefnir, his charged Z-buster in front of Fefnir's face.

"Grr..." Fefnir growled and Zero got off.

"Good fight, you've improved Fefnir." Zero said, "Up for another round?"

Fefnir nodded and bared his teeth as a flame engulfed him.

Zero looked curiously but couldn't dodge Fefnir's next attack:

Fefnir rapidly launched about thirty fireballs at him from both of his arm cannons and pinned Zero against the wall.

Zero's eyes shun in gold for a second and he appeared next to Fefnir, punching him in the face and sending him to the ground.

"Thoth's technique!" Leviathan exclaimed in awe.

Fefnir was about to get up but Zero shot him with his buster.

Fefnir rolled sideways and blasted Zero while still on the ground and while Zero was busy dodging Fefnir got up.

"Good show Zero, but it'll take more than that to defeat me!" Fefnir taunted.

"Heh, Fefnir guess what?" Zero said, disappeared and reappeared next to Fefnir, "I can stop time." He said and jumped in the air, so high that his foot was level with Fefnir's head and then Zero kicked him in the face, throwing him across the room.

Fefnir while soaring through the air blasted Zero three times and caused him to crash into a nearby wall.

Fefnir himself landed on his back and rolled backwards on his feet as he slid on the floor.

"Good Fefnir! I'm impressed with your progress over such a short time, especially after your injury!" Zero exclaimed joyfully, happy that his new partner was getting as good as he was.

"But still..." Zero said, and sprinted up too fast to Fefnir and rammed him shoulder first into the wall and then proceeded with a double kick to Fefnir's chest.

Fefnir yelled and fell to his knees.

"Zero, I'll beat you one day..." he said.

"If you keep training maybe you will." Zero said and grabbed Fefnir's hand, helping him up and then they punched each other's knuckles in a friendly manner.

"Good to see you again Zero." Fefnir said and smiled,

"You too Fefnir." Zero said and also smiled.

The two left the training room to find Harpuia and Leviathan standing outside.

"Harpuia, I see you're fine." Zero said, bowing slightly.

"Hmm... Zero so can _we_ proceed with _our_ duel?" Leviathan asked.

"Sure, I'm up for another round." Zero said and entered back into the training room.

"Well, I think I'll go to my repair station." Fefnir told Harpuia, "Scorch marks all over." He mumbled as he left.

Harpuia however stayed to watch Zero's fight with Leviathan.

"Underwater?" Leviathan asked.

"Yeah." Zero agreed and the room filled with water.

Leviathan was swimming above Zero waiting for the sign that the battle will start.

A horn was sound and she charged, diving at Zero and in the same time unleashing three of her homing dispensable beam daggers.

Zero easily dodged them but didn't expect Leviathan's move, she purposely distracted Zero and while he was distracted she launched one of her 'leviathans' at him.

The 'leviathan' struck Zero in the chest and Zero floated backwards a few feet.

Zero however anticipated Leviathan's staff attack and dodged it in time to kick Leviathan in the abdomen from below and finishing with an upside down uppercut.

Zero then landed softly and jumped quickly above Leviathan and kicked her in the back, crashing her into the ground.

A blue flame surrounded Leviathan and she launched three 'leviathans' at Zero, who desperately tried to dodge them but failed miserably.

But then Zero was tired of games and sliced through the waters at Leviathan with his aqua kick and hit Leviathan in the chest. He then used the recoil from the hit to whirl around in the water and catch Leviathan with the chain rod, flinging her into the opposite wall.

Leviathan smiled and jumped in the air, summoning a massive 'leviathan' at Zero. Zero could easily fit in the thing's mouth but he jumped away, hit the wall and kicked away from it and used the momentum to float above the 'leviathan' and punch Leviathan in the face.

Leviathan floated backwards but Zero caught her again with the chain rod and pulled her down throwing her on the floor.

"That's it!" Leviathan yelled and in a second swam into Zero, kicking him.

Zero floated backwards and retaliated with a misplaced punch, allowing Leviathan a snap hammer kick to his back.

Zero landed on the ground and rolled away as Leviathan was about to stab him with her staff.

Zero then jumped up and used his buster to fire at Leviathan, while she protected her self with her staff Zero floated at her and caught her foot. He landed on the floor still holding her struggling leg and slammed her on the floor. Not letting go he then slammed her into a wall in a rather painful matter and then threw her into another wall.

"Sorry!" he quickly yelled, "I'm being too harsh." He said.

"Too harsh, huh that was nothing..." Leviathan said as she tried to get up.

Zero sped towards her and with a dashing punch in the abdomen finished her off.

"Rats... but I got real better..." Leviathan said as the water drained from the room.

"Leviathan, unbelievable. Zero didn't even use Thoth's technique on you or even used his beam saber on you and Fefnir. Step aside and let me show you how to properly fight." Harpuia stepped inside.

"Fine, I'd like to see you doing any better. Zero is unbeatable!" She said, and when she saw Zero looking at her she blushed and hurried out of the room with a limp.

"So Zero, do you want to fight a real battle?" Harpuia asked.

"It seems that you three really have been practicing to try and defeat me. I wasn't even serious with Leviathan and Fefnir. As a matter of fact you and Phantom were the only ones I fought seriously with." Zero said.

Harpuia smiled and drew his crimson blades.

"Are you ready to lose?" he taunted.

"In the next century maybe." Zero replied with a grin.

To be continued...

Author notes:

I'd really appreciate if people would comment more on my battle scenes. I really want to know how accurately I describe battles and if I should improve something let me know because another fic I'm working on will have lot's of battle scenes and I'd like to know what you think of the battles: Too short, too long, inaccurate, unfair even. And if you think I was lowering one of the guardians' fighting powers you should write so I'd know because my next fic will also include the guardians.

Until the next chapter,

Cursor, oh and by the way Thoth and Hyena are mine okay? So here's the claimer: Thoth and Hyena Hahira are mine, so if you want them ask for them (I don't know why I'm writing it because it's pretty obvious better safe than sorry!)

-Cursor


	7. Four of a kind

Author notes:

Tetsuo Tsubushi: If it will make you happy Aztec Falcon is different than he is in Megaman Zero 1, in MMZ 1 his wings were also his arms but in MMZ 2 he had those talons for hands so he probably has a new body and yes, he is Anubis Necromansess the third. I'd personally be happier if you'd focus on the more important things like commenting on the way I write the story, instead on focusing on the unimportant stuff okay? Thanks.

Warp da warp liger: The guardians did use their EX skills, the parts with the flames surrounding them. Some of the attacks never appeared in the games but I thought I'd like to imagine them doing that. And no, this fic occurs before MMZ 3. So that certain character (No spoilers here) will not appear.

After that is finished please, please focus on the story and not on the detail and I'd still like to hear stuff about my battle scenes, stuff more than 'The fighting scenes are good". If you have the time I ask that you say what you like in particular.

Thank you all so much, one last thing. I'd like to explain that this chapter focuses on the Executioners, instead of Zero and Harpuia's battle. And yes today you'll finally get to know Bullion, the golden executioner (Who is completely mine!).

Chapter 7: Four of a kind 

Whirlpool and Daemon were together in their training facility, and have just finished sparring.

The training facility of the executioners was unlike that of the guardians. It was a huge hall, the walls in a dark gray and decorated with various pictures of the executioners in training.

Against the walls were weapon racks, holding every weapon imaginable. From old swords and spears to beam swords, beam axes and energy cannons and busters.

Inside a glass case hung high up on the wall, was what was considered the perfect weapon. A mega beam:

A beam weapon capable of reproducing every other beam weapon in existence, meaning that it could be a beam sword that has all of the qualities of the Z-saber, or a beam axe like Hyena Hahira's and even a beam scythe like Thoth's, it could even be a beam dagger or a beam staff. This weapon's hilt was silvery-white, the buttons on it were actually carved diamonds and the beam mechanism (The mechanism that controlled the energy, thus creating a weapon) was the best in the world. Approximately fifty years and an uncountable amount of money were spent on this extraordinary one of a kind weapon.

Whirlpool and Daemon kneeled in front of the weapon and bowed their heads for a few seconds before getting out and each went to his quarters.

The beautiful dark blue lady of waters walked down the dark corridor, in front of her it was pitch dark and the only things lighting the darkness of the hallway were two bright yellow eyes.

"Vulture..." Whirlpool smiled.

"Whirlpool how was your sparring. I found it quite enjoyable to watch, your new technique is outstanding." Vulture stepped out of the darkness, if his helmet wouldn't have covered his face a large grin would be spread all over it.

"Daemon got quite the surprise when I showed him the move you taught me." Whirlpool laughed darkly.

"Using it along with your spin combo was a wise move." Vulture said as he walked alongside her down the hallway, backwards.

"I do wish to have a sparring session with you, dear Vulture. But you are always busy building your reploid." Whirlpool complained, even though the sentence itself didn't sound like any kind of complaint. It seemed like a pleasant remark in Whirlpool's voice and tone.

"Friend Whirlpool once I finish my reploid I promise I will spar with you, and as you know I have _never_ contradicted myself." Vulture said, his voice wasn't his real voice because the helmet filters changed it and made it sound cold.

"I trust your word as I trust you, Daemon, Bullion and the master with my life." The blue female said with an enchanting and melodic voice. That would probably make any man do her will.

The black armored reploid stopped, as they reached Whirlpool's chambers.

"Have you finished your reploid yet?" he asked.

"Yes, Poseidon is ready. I have already sent him to the particular spot where the guardians would next search." Whirlpool said with a nod.

Vulture held Whirlpool's chin gently, "It is such a shame, I would have liked to see him."

"I'm sure you will." Whirlpool looked into Vulture's cold eyes.

When Vulture was first created a freak accident destroyed everything he ever cared for, as well as disfigured his face. Since then he was a cold-hearted murderer.

He is a century old, he would travel the world by himself with a weapon he found once; a double-edged beam saber.

He killed any reploid that ever challenged him, maverick or not it did not matter. He wiped out an entire maverick base by himself. The maverick hunters arrived after he left and classified the destroyed base as 'Maverick internal wars'. Not knowing that one reploid caused this.

Vulture looked into Whirlpool's eyes as well, a human scientist created her some time after the Doppler incident, just two years after Vulture was born.

The scientist was bent on creating the most beautiful and perfect woman, and ended up doing exactly what he wished.

However, the scientist went mad with her beauty and was obsessed with her. He stopped letting her out of his lab and sometimes he sat for hours looking at her.

He ordered her around and she followed his orders obediently.

She hated him though; deep inside her she despised what he had become.

She kept doing his dirty work until one day; Vulture broke into the human's house.

An awe struck Whirlpool opened the door to find a cloaked reploid with a black mask standing on her doorstep.

He murdered the human and offered Whirlpool to join him.

Back then Vulture and Whirlpool had different names, and were nothing but ordinary reploids, without wings or fins.

But all of that changed when they met Bullion about seventy years after they met.

Neo-Arcadia had already risen and there were four guardians protecting the brutal Copy X, who retired hundreds if not thousands of innocent reploids.

Bullion spoke of his master, a reploid who offered them a permanent house and whatever they may wish for.

The master Bullion spoke of built their armors. Bullion introduced them to a reploid called Daemon, he didn't explain however who he was or what was his story.

The four trained for years to be able to defeat the guardians, learning their every attack and weapon and creating techniques to counter it.

The master renamed Vulture who didn't have a name to begin with. Whirlpool only referred to him as Reploid. He named him Vulture, like his armor.

As for Whirlpool, she despised the name the human had given her: "Alexia"

This mysterious master she had never seen then changed her name to Whirlpool and since then the master gave them all everything they ever needed.

He rewarded obedience with being able to spar and to use the various facilities they had in their compound and punished bad behavior by stripping them of their armor and reminding them all how they would be without him. All through Bullion the golden reploid was created as the ultimate fighting reploid. His skills matches the ones of X and Zero and with the master's armor, weapons and training had become the most effective killer.

It was rumored that Bullion had even destroyed a significant part of X's guard after being detected on a reconnaissance mission.

It has been a long time and they became completely loyal to the master, not questioning his orders and always praising him.

One day the master appeared before them, he showed them priceless knowledge of the art of creating and destroying.

He taught them how to fight himself, and as they improved he also improved their equipment.

The master then gave them sorrowful news, Copy X has been defeated, and only three guardians remained.

Avenging the guardians for retiring so many reploids was the thing they were training for so long, the disappointment was indeed great so they decided to destroy what was left of the guardians and the entire human race.

Whirlpool smiled at Vulture and entered her room, closing the door.

Vulture looked around and faded into the darkness.

Daemon was in his chambers, he was standing in front of a mirror; looking at himself.

His shining red eyes and arrogant smile weren't on him now, exactly a century ago was the day he was created. He didn't celebrate it however, it was not a happy experience for him at all.

As soon as the capsule's door opened three humans started to inflict pain upon him in a wide variety of methods.

They burned him, dripped acid on him, stabbed him, poked him with burning sticks, stick his hand inside a gigantic block of ice and didn't let him remove it until it was almost useless.

He removed his left gauntlet and looked at the back of his hand.

The human scientists wanted to see how much pain he could endure before going into his dormant repair mode.

They thrust some sort of beam needle straight into the back of his hand and kept it there for a whole day before he went into repair mode.

He yelled and begged them to stop but they treated him as an object.

"Do I have no feelings?" he asked his reflection, who had no answer.

"Don't I deserve to live a life free of pain?" he asked again and yet again his reflection taunted him by not answering.

The top of the pain was when they gave him a small rodent, a rat. He took good care of it and it was his only comfort that kept him going through all of the pain instead of shutting himself down.

He got so attached to 'Rattie' that he forgot what it was like to be without him he couldn't imagine it.

One day, the scientists came in with six armed guards who restrained him and kept his eyes open.

They tortured Rattie to death in front of Daemon's eyes, he struggled but they made him watch.

As the rat took his last breath Daemon discovered he was stronger, he broke free of the guards and killed them.

And then he turned to the scientists.

He made them suffer, he killed them slowly and painfully in front of each other.

He dripped acid on them and burned their faces. He froze them to death and electrified them.

The leading scientist, the one who made that project got the worst punishment of all.

He was skinned alive, and then was forced to watch as Daemon burned his skin.

The scientist cried but Daemon found it amusing.

He was wandering in deserts for all of his life, killing a great number of humans.

He killed an entire family of humans once as they were camping out in the desert.

He killed their children first and then the parents.

His mercilessly and malice got him his name, Daemon.

Daemon smiled at his reflection, "I deserve to live and rule the humans are weak and they will die." He said before punching the mirror and shattering it to a thousand pieces.

A golden reploid stood staring out into the storm raging outside his window, his golden armor reflecting the lightning.

This reploid was a human-like reploid but he was covered with the armor of a wolf, making him seem like some sort of animal like the Mutos reploids.

His greaves were v-shaped, as the others.

He was the only one who had known all along, that the master created the executioners and sent them to those horrible places they were in.

If it weren't for the accident Vulture would have realized that his 'parents' were two sick and sadistic reploid haters. But he loved them as he didn't knew they were actually punks and anti reploid brats.

Bullion's snout almost touched the glass as he looked outside; he was created by the master and lived with the master for all o his life.

The master made him the perfect killer, trained him with any weapon in existence and taught him all about demolition and terrorism.

"Fighting on my own terms..." Bullion said.

He was the strongest of the executioners, and the closest to the master.

He trained all of his life to be able to defeat Copy X. but since Zero had already destroyed X, his lifelong training was in vain.

He didn't care though, just the thought of destroying the humans after what they had done to his brothers and sister was enough to keep him wanting to annihilate all of Neo-Arcadia.

"I will destroy the humans, and anything else that stands in my way." He said to himself and left the window, the storm outside raging and a rumbling thunder boomed across the sky.

He and his siblings all had one thing in common, their hatred for humans.

They were four of a kind...

To be continued...

Author note: this chapter was the background on the executioners. I didn't say how Whirlpool and Daemon sparred in the beginning because their skills will show soon in all of their glory.

Until the next chapter...

-Cursor


	8. Zero vs Harpuia

Chapter 8: Zero vs. Harpuia 

"How about we make this a bit more interesting?" Harpuia asked,

"Hmm?" Zero hummed to get Harpuia to the point.

"No special techniques or chips and no weapons." The green colored reploid said, his eyes shining.

Zero looked at him for a moment and nodded.

"Now, I'd like to show you Harpuia!" The guardian said and sped to him in incredible speed.

Zero tried to jump out of the way but Harpuia leaped up and gave him an uppercut so powerful he sent him soaring to the ceiling.

Zero crashed into the ceiling and fell down on his legs, "Nice move Harpuia..." he said and dashed at Harpuia who jumped out of harm's way.

Zero wasn't aiming at him however; he jumped on the wall behind Harpuia and wall kicked away to strike Harpuia in the back with a well-aimed kick.

Harpuia broke his fall with his hands and quickly pushed himself to the air and landed on his legs, facing the red blond reploid.

Harpuia smiled and ran up to a wall, he started running on the wall. Circling the room with a green blur occasionally jumping out to kick or punch Zero.

He hit Zero twice before Zero got annoyed and jump kicked the wall, hitting the speeding green demon and crashing him into the floor.

"I thought we said no special techniques!" Zero yelled.

"That's no technique, it's sheer speed!" Harpuia exclaimed with a mocking laughter.

"Sheer speed eh? I'll show you speed." Zero dashed quickly and painfully into Harpuia so fast that he didn't even notice him until he fell on his back in the corner of the training room.

Harpuia quickly jumped to his feet and started jumping and somersaulting throughout the room, attempting to confuse Zero.

Harpuia jumped behind Zero and landed a double kick on Zero's back.

Zero fell face forward on the floor and then he kicked Harpuia, who had already landed, in his leg tripping him.

Harpuia fell with a yelp if surprise and Zero got up before he did.

Zero ran to Harpuia and kicked him as hard as he could, knocking into the air.

Harpuia balanced himself and landed on his feet, sprinting over at Zero he grabbed him in the arm and ran past him, pulling him along until he stopped at once and released Zero, who crashed into the opposite wall and received a kick to his abdomen.

"Now you're talking!" Zero said as he quickly jumped up to avoid a second kick in the face.

He landed in front of Harpuia and as Harpuia turned his pelvis to kick him with his right leg Zero crouched and the kick went past him and gave him an excellent opportunity to head butt Harpuia in the chest, knocking him backwards and then jumping in the air and landing with a kick on Harpuia's stomach.

Harpuia coughed out some red fluids but kept fighting, throwing Zero off him and jumping back on his legs.

He sped at Zero and faked a punch to Zero's jaw, as Zero ducked to avoid the fake punch Harpuia kicked him in the face and sent him onto his back.

Harpuia tried to elbow-slam him but Zero rolled away and jumped up.

The red guardian landed on his feet lightly and faced the green guardian.

Harpuia tried a right hook but Zero dodged, this time catching Harpuia's foot as he tried to kick him again and then slamming him into the wall as he did to Leviathan.

Harpuia kicked the wall, throwing himself backwards unto Zero and knocking Zero backwards.

Zero sped up to him and grabbed his collar, quickly running and wall kicking a wall he then used the momentum to crash Harpuia against the floor.

Harpuia punched Zero in the face and a trail of red fluid appeared in the corner of Zero's mouth.

He then rolled over, making Zero to be on the bottom and then delivered a few strong punches to Zero's face.

"Hey, I just came back from the PRS (Personal repair station) and... What the...?" Fefnir said as Harpuia crashed into the wall near him, and then quickly ducked to avoid a punch from Zero that hit the wall creating a large dent.

"Whoa!" Fefnir said as Harpuia sent a kick over at Zero and almost hit his head.

As Zero retaliated to Harpuia's punch Fefnir jumped backwards to avoid his strike.

Harpuia blocked Zero's punch and delivered a strong one of his own to Zero's shoulder, sending Zero backwards.

Zero bared his teeth and punched the ground, creating a massive earthquake.

"How the...?" Fefnir asked as the earthquake paralyzed him.

Zero sped forwards and delivered a punch so strong and fast a flame formed around it due to the friction with the air.

The strike hit Harpuia dead on, throwing him so far across the training room that it seemed that if the wall wasn't there he could circle the globe a few times before stopping.

Harpuia dashed and kicked Zero twice in the face, by now both of them were full of red fluids from themselves and from each other.

"What in blazes do you guys think you're doing!?" Fefnir yelled over the commotion of their fighting.

At that point Leviathan entered the room and was almost hit in the face by one of Harpuia's helmet wings.

She quickly ducked and looked at the scene in front of her:

The training room was filled with red liquids and parts, the walls were full of dents and holes and the helpless Fefnir was staring at a battle of the titans between Zero and Harpuia.

"What are you two doing?!" She shouted as the two clashed and Zero pinned Harpuia against a wall.

"Fighting it seems." Said Fefnir coolly, it was unlike him he enjoyed battles but probably the sight of a battle this intense stunned him.

"Do you know there was an earthquake right now in the city? A few buildings collapsed and we're needed to help search for survivors.

Fefnir just stared at her with his pupils widened.

"You're kidding..." he said, "It can't be..."

"I'm not kidding, what the heck is going on?" Leviathan asked bluntly.

"Zero... he err... punched the ground and he... he made that earthquake and... and... I... I mean..." Fefnir was too shocked to speak properly and judging by the look on Leviathan's face so was she.

The fierce battle between Harpuia and Zero just became fiercer and the pink and blue guardians had to retreat to the safety of the observing room.

Zero and Harpuia were fighting in such levels that the guardians had never seen.

It went on for hours, at one point Fefnir and Leviathan went to help find survivors from collapsed buildings but when they came back Zero and Harpuia were still fighting. Red fluids covered the walls and smeared blots of them have made room for imagining some unpleasant pictures of what happened there.

But in the end, Zero gave his strongest punch to Harpuia's chest, completely destroying his armor there.

Harpuia fell flat on his back on the floor and was in dormant repair mode.

Zero panted heavily and fell to his knees, Harpuia really did train hard he thought but still. He was stronger; better then the feeble green guardian. Wait, feeble?! It was the second time he thought such a thing, but why did those thoughts jumped into his mind?

Leviathan and Fefnir rushed into the room and Fefnir quickly took Harpuia to the maintenance room.

"You two are unbelievable, what were you thinking?!" Leviathan yelled at him, but he couldn't hear her. Her voice just sounded like a distant rambling.

Before he could stop himself he said, "I'm sorry, we were irresponsible. We let this little duel turn into such a battle..." Zero was shocked when he heard what his little earthquake has caused and immediately went to the people of Neo-Arcadia and apologized, even though no one died and new homes would be provided to them the humans were unforgiving and merciless. They shouted at him and threw whatever they could at him before he left with a feeling of bitterness.

He couldn't believe it, HE fought to protect their ancestors, and he lost so much to Sigma and his stupid Mavericks. He was angry, but he knew that the humans were shocked and angry as well. He calmed down and entered his PRS.

It repaired him in fifteen minutes but something inside him could not be repaired, the bitter feeling he had when he came back from Neo-Arcadia.

Just as he was about to go to his bed and sleep Leviathan entered the room.

"We still have a mission to do remember?" she asked. Zero looked at the time, it was three pm but he felt as if it was three am.

He sighed and followed Leviathan to the mission room.

"Our next mission would be in an underwater storage facility, it suddenly started giving a great number of electric output. As if it was used by someone, we think this may be one of the Executioners' hideouts." Leviathan explained.

"Ready?" she asked and without waiting for a response she said, "Transfer us."

Fefnir was still with Harpuia in the maintenance room so it was only him and Leviathan again...

To be continued...


	9. The underwater storage facility

Author notes:

Thanks a lot to all of your reviews, I started out this story kind of as a test story to see what people say about my writing in the Megaman division and it turned out that you liked it, I'm pleased with myself. I must really thank you all for taking the time to review my work and express your opinions, also I'd like to thank those who told me how I can improve in their opinion, that really taught me some important lessons in how to write my stories.

I am right now updating in a rate of one chapter per day, it is exhausting but worth the effort. Some chapters are different than others and sometimes I try new things in my writings, and I just remembered there are going to be many plot-holes that will be explained later on in the story. So hang in there! I am a writer who likes to keep the unexplained details to the end where everything will become obvious once the reader understands it so have patience and you will find out what is going on.

Again thanks to you all, even the writers who haven't reviewed my story. Just reading their work is inspiring and productive!

-Cursor

**Chapter 9: The underwater storage facility**

"Whoa..." Zero said as they arrived, the submarine bay was full of sliced and crushed Pantheons, their fluids decorating the walls.

"The executioners were definitely here." Leviathan said slowly as she walked between the bodies of the Pantheons.

Zero followed her, avoiding the large number of bodies and trying hard not to step on any part of them.

They reached the submarine door and opened it, to find a large cannon powering up to fire at them.

"Duck!" Zero yelled and both he and Leviathan hit the deck, the beam of the cannon went right over their heads.

Leviathan stood up and threw her staff at the cannon while it was charging up. The cannon exploded, throwing the staff right back at Leviathan who caught it gracefully.

"Where did that cannon come from?" Leviathan asked, "I think these guys can make mechaniloids too..." She added.

Zero sighed, it's just going to take longer he thought. Those stupid executioners thinking that they could best the greatest reploid who ever lived... he snapped out of it, what is going on? It was the third time a thought like this jumped into his head.

"Leviathan, let's go." He said quickly to distract himself from his thoughts.

They reached a dead end after about a minute.

"A dead end!? There isn't any dead end here... argh!" Leviathan tried to punch the wall but her fist has just gone through it and she fell on the floor.

"Those executioners are going to get it this time..." Leviathan muttered as Zero helped her up.

"What about your helmet? Haven't they got it fixed yet?" Zero asked, staring at Leviathan's cyan hair as she rubbed her head.

"Oh, well I didn't pick it up yet... I feel really comfortable like this." She explained with an apologizing tone.

"What if whoever's in here will attack your head? Then you will be defenseless." Zero said as they continued following the signs leading to the command room.

"Never mind that, look!" Leviathan pointed at Thoth, wait a minute... Thoth?!

He stood there with his scythe ready for action.

"What is going on?" Zero asked, "No way someone could have rebuilt Thoth this soon!"

"It's the doppelganger effect." Leviathan said, her voice lowering "Whoever did this is probably really smart, but I know how this can be possible... It's a copy, not like X was. But a copy that mimics the ability of it's original but is far less strong. They are easily produced just like Pantheons but I have yet to see one." Leviathan explained quickly.

"The executioners probably thought we'd be intimidated and then escape..." Zero understood.

He dashed forwards and sliced 'Thoth' with his Z-saber.

The doppelganger was sliced in half as if he was a mere Pantheon hunter.

"You were right, did Copy X teach you that?" Zero asked.

"How did you know?" Leviathan asked but Zero didn't answer.

Zero knew that the original X was by far more powerful than Copy X so he himself was to be considered a doppelganger.

They moved on and encountered a pack of Thoth, they sliced at Zero and Leviathan but they were too strong for the Thoth's to be able to even scratch them.

They kept walking and reached a gigantic room, the mess hall. It was full of Thoth's and what was odd Hyena was there too.

"A Hyena doppelganger?" Zero asked Leviathan who shrugged.

"We just left Hyena's body there, thought your people might clean it up." Leviathan said nonchalantly.

The battle begun and as dozens of doppelgangers attacked them they were growing weary.

After the seventieth doppelganger Zero started to pant heavily.

"We can't keep this up much longer." He said to Leviathan who was panting even more than he was.

"I know I know..." she puffed.

"We have got to do something it seems those guys never stop coming..." Zero yelled over the commotion of the doppelgangers stampede.

Leviathan looked around frantically and finally spotted something she could use.

An airlock right near them, filled with water.

"Hold on!" she yelled as she launched one of her daggers at the airlocks door.

The door broke and water from outside started flooding the mess hall.

Leviathan looked even prettier and more graceful in the water, if that was even possible Zero thought.

She summoned up a whole pack of her leviathans and the water serpents destroyed the helpless doppelgangers.

Zero and Leviathan helped the serpents clear out the last of the doppelgangers and both fell to their knees panting heavily from the battle.

After a while both started laughing, they laughed and laughed and couldn't stop.

After what seemed like half an hour they pressed on, destroying cannons and some piranha mechaniloids that greatly reminded Zero of the Sharkseals.

They went through the corridors and entered an airlock that filtered away the waters much to Leviathan's disappointment.

"Dry combat from now on." Zero commented, looking at Leviathan's sapphire eyes and smiling.

Leviathan smiled back and they both entered the next few hallways.

They reached another dead end but this time it really was blocked.

"What!?" Leviathan hit the wall hard a couple of times.

"How can it be? There is supposed to be a door here. Did the executioners seal it?" Leviathan said in frustration.

"Wait a minute, where is the door's controls?" Zero asked,

"There should be a panel on the door's left." Leviathan said and Zero started to feel the wall to the left of the door until his hand touched something, a button. He pressed it and he went through the hidden door.

"Clever. Whoever did this sure wanted to keep us out of the command room." Leviathan said and suddenly gasped.

Zero followed her gaze and quickly crouched so that the laser beam would miss him.

A great doppelganger of Seraph X was floating up in the air.

"M... master X...?" Leviathan said weakly.

"No! Its another doppelganger, what are those executioners trying to pull?" Zero asked worriedly.

Zero leaped into the battle as Leviathan was paralyzed.

The doppelganger tried to hit him with his energy rings but as Zero knew this move he was able to dodge it pretty easily and he attacked the fake X, slicing his head once.

The doppelganger's armor took the blow nicely and the doppelganger used its beam attack and burned the floor.

Zero had to pick up Leviathan and move her away so she wouldn't be harmed.

"This place is filled with old schematics of us and our army reploids, and Copy X..." Leviathan said, "The executioners can easily create doppelgangers resembling us and send them to... oh no!" she looked at Zero and Zero looked back.

"Neo-Arcadia!" they said in unison and Zero yelled in his comm.

"There are doppelgangers we are still here if there is another Leviathan in the base destroy her!" he yelled.

Meanwhile at Neo-Arcadia's mission room...

"There... here... Leviathan... in... the base... her..." sounded through the room.

"Its just Zero, wanting to know if I arrived safely." Leviathan said to Harpuia and Fefnir.

Harpuia was fixed rather quickly this time as all of the maintenance reploids worked solely on him.

"Hey Leviathan I want to talk to you..." Harpuia said and beckoned her to follow.

She followed him to his quarters and they entered.

Harpuia's quarters were huge, they were X's former quarters. With a throne and all.

Gold decorated the walls and magnificent furniture furnished the gigantic room.

There was a massive closet to the left of the room.

Exactly in the middle was a great king-size bed, with a golden H on it. It used to be an X but as Harpuia became leader they changed it to H.

Harpuia looked for a second at Leviathan and suddenly noticed something, since when did Leviathan had red eyes?

Leviathan drew her staff from behind her back and stepped tried to impale Harpuia, who jumped out of the way.

"What are you doing Leviathan?!" he shouted, hoping that she would stop. But she didn't she pressed on and Harpuia was helpless, not wanting to hurt her.

He could only dodge her attacks but soon he knew she would manage to hit him. He just prayed someone would come by then since his wrist comm. was still in the maintenance room.

At the underwater storage facility...

Leviathan and Zero fought about a dozen of the guardians' doppelganger.

Zero had just destroyed another Fefnir as a Harpuia attacked him.

"We got to hurry, if a Leviathan is in Neo-Arcadia she must be already doing something." Zero said urgently.

"You're right, we have to do something. Use Thoth's technique and wipe out as many of them as you can." Leviathan suggested even though it sounded more like an order.

Zero stopped time for a brief period of twenty seconds in which he managed to wipe out half of the doppelgangers.

"I need time to recharge my attack." Zero said.

"You got it." Leviathan dashed forwards and used her staff as a lance, piercing a row of doppelgangers.

Zero kept on fighting, taking out large numbers of doppelgangers by trapping them with the chain rod and crushing them against something.

"Come on!" Zero said as he was about to be recharged.

He then stopped time for the second time and destroyed what was left of the doppelgangers.

"Now to get into the command room." Leviathan said and ran through a doorway just to fall into water.

"What the!?" She asked, the command room was filled with water and on top of them were floating icebergs. On top of them stood a blue reploid, who resembled a humanoid octopus. A humanlike body and the head of an octopus completed with tentacles.

He held in his hand a trident and looked at them with his glowing blue eyes.

"I am Poseidon, chosen of the Executioner Whirlpool. And I am your doom." His eyes flashed.

Zero jumped onto an iceberg and prepared for battle, he preferred leaving the underwater fighting to Leviathan as it was her specialty.

They both waited for Poseidon to choose his move, whether to fight Zero above or Leviathan below...

To be continued...


	10. Poseidon and pseudo Leviathan

**Chapter 10: Poseidon and pseudo Leviathan.**

Poseidon glared at Zero, before staring at Leviathan, who was waiting inside the water.

Poseidon was large and tall; from his neck down he was covered with a robe of dark blue with a symbol of a trident embroidered on it.

A hand was sticking out of the robe's sleeve, holding a golden trident.

The other hand was concealed within the depths of the ocean blue robe.

Poseidon's head was that of an octopus, tentacles were dangling from the bottom of it and in the middle of them was what seemed to be his mouth.

His eyes were a light glowing blue and they were rather large.

The octopus reploid blink and a second one appeared, the first dived into the waters.

Zero stared in surprise, "Two!?" he said to no one in particular.

The Poseidon above the water removed his robe and revealed himself:

He had four humanlike arms and four tentacles for legs, his torso was wide and covered his shoulders, it was painted blue and dark blue and engraved on it was a golden trident.

The pelvis armor yet again, was v-shaped and colored simply blue.

Zero knew that the fact that the octopus had four arms won't matter since he had only one trident, that was until three more were teleported into Poseidon's outstretched hands.

"Rats..." Zero said, he thought for a moment and decided to wait for Poseidon to attack.

Poseidon crawled over pretty fast even though he was using tentacles instead of legs.

That should give him an advantage in the water but not on land Zero thought.

Poseidon pushed himself into the air and attacked Zero. Zero jumped backwards into another iceberg and hailed bullets on Poseidon from his Z-buster, finishing with a charged flame shot. Ice's weakness is flame, flame's is electricity, and electricity's is ice.

The shot hit him dead on but the octopus reploid remained unscathed.

"How the!?" Zero asked, he shot at Poseidon again but still he wasn't affected.

Zero charged up his Z-saber and slashed at Poseidon, hitting directly but still not harming him.

He froze in surprise and received two hits from Poseidon's tridents, throwing him into a stalagmite of ice.

Zero crashed through the ice stalagmite and landed on another iceberg, which started cracking and pieces floated away from it.

Leviathan wasn't doing any better; the second Poseidon had her where he wanted, hurling his tridents at her and summoning more.

Leviathan pushed the tridents away with her staff but some managed to hit her, her shoulder was slashed once, a red liquid started spreading in the water.

She decided to use that as a diversion and squeezed her shoulder painfully, like the squid she disappeared in the red liquids and ascended to attack Poseidon from another angle.

She dove at him and whacked him with her staff before he could react, then she took out her daggers and stuck them in him. She finished with a blue serpent aimed at the octopus reploid.

The dragon hit dead on and the bubbles that formed blocked Poseidon from view, as they dispersed however Leviathan saw a grim image of Poseidon looking at her as if in boredom.

Leviathan swam backwards and unleashed the serpent again, but this time Poseidon didn't even let her finish before hurling a trident at her which skewered her left side.

She yelled out and on the surface Zero, who in the meanwhile was getting hit pretty bad himself heard her.

"Leviathan!" he yelled and dove into the water...

"Leviathan stop! It's me Harpuia!" Harpuia said to the doppelganger he thought was his trusted partner and friend.

'Leviathan' however still tried to stab and hit him with her battle staff.

"Please Leviathan I don't want to hurt you! Why are you doing this?" the frustrated Harpuia said as he dodged her attacks lightly.

The doppelganger's red eyes shun for a moment and she dashed forwards with speed, hitting Harpuia dead on with the shaft of her staff, pinning him against the wall.

"Wait Leviathan don't!" Harpuia yelled, trying to keep her from himself.

She held the shaft of the staff with one hand and punched Harpuia with the other one.

"Ugh... Leviathan!" Harpuia coughed and gasped as she drew out one of her homing daggers.

"No." he ordered but the doppelganger didn't care, she thrust it into his armor but couldn't break it. She lifted her hand for another stab but her hand was grabbed from behind.

"What in blazes are you doing Leviathan?" asked Fefnir, who apparently heard Harpuia's cries and went to investigate.

The doppelganger Leviathan hit Fefnir with a back kick and he let go of her arm. She then continued with an elbow to the face, knocking Fefnir back.

Leviathan then punched Harpuia with a left hook and a right uppercut, still against the wall Harpuia couldn't do much, and even if he could he wouldn't just attack his friend, there had to be a reason why she was acting this way.

Fefnir wasn't as reasonable as he was and tried to smack the pseudo Leviathan, she jumped way too fast out of his way and he hit Harpuia instead.

Pseudo Leviathan landed behind Fefnir and launched a kick to his back, knocking him straight into Harpuia.

Fefnir recovered and turned around and stood in his combat stance.

"Why you little... I ought to..." he said before firing with his arm cannon.

"Fefnir don't!" Harpuia yelled as Fefnir shot at Leviathan, who dodged every single fireball and started to hit Fefnir with her staff, she used the shaft to whack Fefnir and then she sliced at him with the sharp tip of the staff.

She sliced Fefnir once across the armor, leaving a notable mark on it.

"That's it!" Fefnir said as his face turned red and punched doppelganger Leviathan in the face, throwing her across the room.

He took good aim at the doppelganger and fired a large fireball that would surely destroy her.

The fireball hit something and Fefnir smiled, until he realized Harpuia positioned himself between him and 'Leviathan' and absorbed the attack.

"She's our friend you ignorant fool!" Harpuia yelled at him, "If it was you would you want me to attack you like that? Maybe she can explain herself! What crossed your head when you did that?!" Harpuia yelled and suddenly felt a sharp object pierce his back.

'Leviathan' stood up in the meantime and stabbed him in the back. The damage was light but Harpuia was ticked off.

He himself lost control and punched Leviathan hard in the face, crushing it completely.

Both Fefnir and Harpuia were shocked, the fluids of 'Leviathan' spilt on Harpuia who was completely petrified.

"What the...?" Fefnir started,

"Fefnir, this isn't Leviathan..." Harpuia said after closer examination.

"It's a copy or something, I think you'd better go to that storage facility now. Ask the operators to get you to Zero's coordinates." Harpuia commanded, "I'll go and patch this up." He gestured at the minor injury he has sustained.

"Right!" Fefnir said and ran outside the room.

Zero dove to find Leviathan floating upwards, the octopus reploid aiming to finish her off.

"No!" Zero yelled and rammed the octopus in the back.

Poseidon who up until now used his tentacles to float in the water lost balance and sunk.

He whirled around and threw a couple of tridents at Zero, who managed to dodge three of them but the fourth hit his leg, crippling him.

It wasn't fair, what a childish thought. But Zero couldn't help but thinking it, this reploid was immune to any form of damage, Zero tried everything from the Z-saber to the shield boomerang but nothing seemed to hurt the water monster that was Poseidon.

The other Poseidon jumped into the water and swam towards Zero.

"That's it then." Zero said to Poseidon.

"You shouldn't have been here. I am sorry." The opponent apologized, what was weird that it wasn't the one near him. It was the one about to kill Leviathan that spoke. Something in his voice sounded sincere and Zero heard obvious reluctance in it.

He looked at the Poseidon in front of him and at the other Poseidon and then it hit him.

Fefnir appeared next to him in a white flash, ready for action and aimed at the nearest Poseidon, the one about to attack Zero.

"No don't, attack the other one Fefnir!" Zero yelled.

Fefnir nodded and aimed his arm cannon at the other one, firing three large fireballs at him.

"No!" Poseidon yelled as the first fireball hit him.

The second and third hit him and he exploded, the shockwave coursing through the water.

The Poseidon about to attack Zero disappeared, as Zero thought: The first Poseidon was the **_real_** Poseidon; the other one was a double. He remembered using this technique himself once but couldn't remember when.

Zero swam and grabbed Leviathan's body also grabbing an ice chip from the ruins of Poseidon.

"Operator transfer us." Fefnir said and the three disappeared in a white flash.

Upon their arrival at Neo-Arcadia Zero explained to Fefnir and Harpuia about the doppelgangers,

"I figured that much." Said Harpuia.

Harpuia took Leviathan for repairs but Fefnir said to Zero,

"Come on, I want to destroy where they're manufacturing those doppelgangers." He said, "As soon as we do it the better."

Zero was exhausted, but what choice did he have? So he agreed and the operators showed them two likely places where they might be manufacturing the doppelgangers, one was a Mayan temple and the other was an electricity provider for Neo-Arcadia (like a power generator) it was self maintaining and recently strange reploids were spotted there so it seemed more likely to be manufacturing the doppelgangers.

"Transfer us to the energy provider." Zero said and he and Fefnir disappeared in a bright white light.

To be continued...

Author notes: Poseidon's technique was actually an enhanced version of the MMX 5 "Twin dream" technique. His body was weak so he was solely depending on the 'double' he had to do his dirty work.

-Cursor


	11. The energy provider and an unexpected su...

Chapter 11: The energy provider and an unexpected surprise 

Fefnir and Zero were staring at a giant hall filled with machines, all of them were producing electricity and several sparkles shot out occasionally from them.

The entrance hall didn't indicate any presence at all but Zero and Fefnir investigated moving deeper into the complex.

"I don't get it." Fefnir said after they had reached the fourth empty hall. Nothing unusual was there according to Fefnir and he didn't see any sign that anyone had been here for years. Even the dust was left undisturbed.

"I don't like this." Fefnir said, walking before Zero and looking around as they entered the next chamber.

Suddenly a golden figure appeared before them, it stretched out his hand and spread its palm.

"Halt." Bullion said.

"You!" Fefnir yelled and then he whispered to Zero through the corner of his mouth, "It's one of the executioners. A maverick." Zero's eyes shun. What was it with the word Maverick that annoyed him, even if it wasn't spoken about him?

The wolf-like reploid stared at Fefnir in hatred and snarled, "Perhaps I am Fefnir the guardian. But I am proud to be one who fights against you and the humans."

"I have not come to address you Mr. Fefnir, I need to speak to Mr. Zero." Bullion said with venom in his voice.

"Leave us." Zero said, his voice cold he was staring at Bullion, who stared back.

"What!?" Fefnir asked astounded.

"Leave this chamber." Zero explained, still staring at Bullion.

"What are you talking about, let's get him!" Fefnir waved his arms and made some rude gestures towards Bullion.

"I said LEAVE!" Zero shouted the last word, and the offended Fefnir retreated away from the chamber, swearing.

"You... you want to talk to me? Then go ahead." Zero said to Bullion, studying the feral-looking reploid.

"Mr. Zero, a pleasure to meet you." Bullion held out his paw for Zero to shake but the blond reploid didn't move.

"I see... Well, I am here to inform you that we are not attempting to retire you. But the guardians, in fact we would gladly accept the one who retired Phantom and Copy X to lead us." Bullion spoke, his voice sounding like a mixture of welcoming and rejecting tones making his intentions unclear.

"The master eagerly asked me to speak to you and tell you of his offer. We will not attack you unless there will be no other choice. However, if you will continue your path as a guardian and help them in their quest to defeat us I sadly announce that we will have no choice but to destroy you." Bullion finished.

"Even if I wanted to join you, how could I trust you?" Zero asked bluntly.

"You can't. You don't know us and we don't know you. But we know of you, we fight for the sake of reploids around the world, as are you. You fought Neo-Arcadia to defend innocent reploids and so are we. In order to defend reploid kind we must destroy Neo-Arcadia." Bullion explained. He was a reploid of little patience he always got to the point straight away instead of stalling time.

"If you fight Neo-Arcadia then you must fight me. I will not let you destroy the humans." Zero said a bit louder than he intended.

Bullion sighed, and stared deeply into Zero's eyes.

"You have fought thousands of mavericks and risked your life time and again for the humans. You have protected them from Elpizo and the dark elf, but today how did they express their gratitude? By throwing whatever they could at you that's how. Humans are selfish and self-centered. That is the only reason why Copy X. ran Neo-Arcadia so they won't have to make 'big decisions' and face the consequences of their mistakes. They are lazy and stupid Neo-Arcadia deceives them. Tell me, did any one of the humans who attacked you today said anything about Copy X?" Bullion asked but received no reply.

He smiled, as Zero understood what he was getting into, the humans don't even know about Copy X being destroyed.

"You see? Who knows how much more they haven't told you." The wolf snickered.

"Maybe you're right. But I am a guardian and no matter how the humans treat me I will protect them until my last breath." Zero said.

Bullion's smile faded as if it was never there.

"Fine, I must say you are making a mistake but you leave us no choice. Thor!" he called out, and heavy footsteps were heard behind Zero.

He turned around to catch an unconscious Fefnir.

The reploid in front of him was humongous; he was at least three times Fefnir's size.

He had a winged Viking-style helmet and in his hand he held a massive war hammer.

His face was that of a gorilla, his mighty hands wielded the hammer with skill.

Thor was the name of an ancient Viking god of thunder.

"Goodbye Zero." The wolf said, leaving Zero, the unconscious Fefnir and the giant Thor.

Thor threw his hammer at Zero who jumped back and as he landed on the ground he noticed an electricity bolt course through the metal.

It hit him and he fell backwards after a moment of being paralyzed.

Thor picked up his hammer and swung it at Zero, missing. The hammer shot a bolt of electricity straight at Zero, who in the meantime implemented the ice chip.

"Ice on electricity." He said to himself as he dodged the bolt skillfully.

He jumped around the room, confusing the giant and jumped at him with his Z-saber charged. He hit him dead on, on his chest and Thor froze.

Zero was charging up for another attack but was swiped as Thor recovered much faster than he expected him to.

"Rats!" Zero yelled as he hit a provider (generator) and got electrocuted.

He was paralyzed and the electricity coursed through him, he was afraid his CPU would fry but just then help came in the form of Fefnir, who pulled Zero away from the provider. Receiving a nasty shock himself.

"Thanks..." Zero panted.

"No problem, now about that guy..." he shot at Thor three times but Thor was unaffected.

"Electricity Fefnir, your cannon won't help." Zero said, "Better just step back and let me handle him."

"Huh? No way!" Fefnir said and launched a gigantic fireball from his cannon.

The fireball, while not actually hurting Thor caused him to stumble backwards.

"That's it Fefnir! You distract him and I'll attack!" Zero thought up a promising plan. That is until Thor shot another energy beam at him instead of Fefnir.

Zero dodged and understood that melee combat won't be such a good idea.

"Fefnir, use that rapid attack you used on me!" Zero yelled and dodged another bolt, quickly hitting the wall and then shooting at Thor with his buster, not even scratching him.

Fefnir nodded and summoned his second arm cannon and then fired rapidly at Thor, who was pushed backwards with every shot.

"I have to take careful aim." Zero said to no one in particular as he prepared to fire. Charging his buster and aiming carefully Zero yelled and shot at Thor's head, hitting it and freezing the entire reploid.

"Stop shooting!" he yelled at Fefnir, Fefnir then indeed stopped shooting.

Zero started charging up for another attack but this time he was hit from behind by something far more powerful than he ever felt.

He was launched forwards straight into a provider and from the force of the blow he crashed through it. Electric sparks frolicked around him as he slid on the floor to a halt.

It was a doppelganger that Bullion summoned, a Thor doppelganger.

"Another doppelganger!" Fefnir exclaimed and opened fire on the doppelganger; his largest fireballs didn't even faze the titan.

"It's not a doppelganger it's the real thing. The one we've been fighting is the doppelganger." Zero said.

Thor than used his prized technique and shot out his hammer, creating a tremor in the ground causing it to electrocute.

Zero and Fefnir fell, electrocuted to the floor.

Meanwhile in Neo-Arcadia...

Harpuia wandered around in his chamber, his wound was healed but he couldn't stop worrying about Fefnir and Zero.

"I must do something." He decided, but then stopped.

"But if they're alright they'll both think I'm pushing in on their action. And I wouldn't want that." Harpuia circled the room in a fast walk.

"But what if they do need help?" he asked himself.

"I think I'll just visit Leviathan and ask her what she thinks." He decided and left towards the maintenance room.

He entered and looked around spotting Leviathan looking in interest at the maintenance reploids fixing her shoulder.

"Hey Harpuia, they said it wouldn't take so long I'll be out in ten to fifteen minutes or so." Leviathan said with a smile when she saw him approach.

"Listen Leviathan, I've got a bad feeling that Fefnir and Zero are in trouble but I don't want to make them think I'm trying to keep an eye on them or to steal their action." Harpuia said.

"You men are all alike, action this and that. If you're worried why don't I come along with you so they won't accuse you of 'stealing their action' sheesh." Leviathan said.

"Okay, Leviathan." Harpuia said and sat down nearby to wait for Leviathan.

"I just hope they'll be fine in the meanwhile." Harpuia thought.

After a while in the energy provider...

Zero and Fefnir were cornered, Thor had released his doppelganger and the two got them exactly where they wanted the.

Bullion appeared in a flash of white and said, "I warned you Zero. Now you'll have to face the consequences of your decision." Bullion smiled evilly and laughed mockingly.

Suddenly the doppelganger Thor was sliced in two and the original Thor stumbled forwards.

"What?!" Thor asked, as he turned around and saw Harpuia and Leviathan with their weapons drawn.

Zero was relieved to see Leviathan again, especially since she wore her helmet this time.

Bullion studied the situation, all four guardians against him and Thor.

Thor would be subdued easily but he was way stronger than Thor, but still the master warned him not to engage in combat with the guardians yet.

With a white flash and a snide remark Bullion disappeared.

It was now the four guardians against Thor.

All four attacked at once; slashing, firing, whacking, hitting, firing some more and all charged their attacks unleashing a wave of destruction on the helpless Thor.

When they had finished Thor was scrap metal.

"They're getting stronger." Zero said as they swept the energy provider for more enemies, Zero found a lightning chip and took it, knowing it would be usefull.

"The other two were weaker, it took all four of us to take that one down." Zero said, he started enjoying working in a team. Each with their special skills to add to the battle, their advantages like Leviathan's in the water, Harpuia's in the air, Fefnir and Zero on the ground. And their attributes, the speed of Harpuia, Fefnir's strength, Leviathan's agility and Zero's endurance were all invaluable.

But something deep inside Zero told him he was stronger, he was better than the weaklings he considered as friends. But he pushed these thoughts away from his mind.

They were back at the mission room of Neo-Arcadia and were preparing for the next mission.

"All that's left now is the Mayan temple." Harpuia said, "We should all go but split up. Covering more ground. Should anyone encounter an executioner or one of their doppelgangers or reploids call for everyone immediately." Harpuia briefed.

"Okay operator. You know what to do." He said and the four disappeared in a white flash, to reappear each in a different part of a jungle.

It was time to destroy the doppelgangers once and for all.

To be continued...

Author notes: I did put two asterisks where I switched places but as I noticed now they hadn't appeared on the Fanfiction text. Wonder why...


	12. The Mayan pyramid pt1

**Chapter 12: The Mayan pyramid pt.1**

Zero has been transferred into the midst of the jungle; the dense trees blocked the skies and shaded him.

Zero looked around and decided to climb up a tree to see where the pyramid is.

He climbed up a bent tree and reached the top, he shaded his brow with his hand and looked at the ocean of trees below him.

He saw the pyramid it was huge, it rose up from the trees and he could see the entrance from his direction.

A gigantic staircase led to it, climbing upwards and upwards.

"Check in everyone." He heard Harpuia's voice in his comm.

"Fefnir, ground level checking in." he then heard Fefnir's voice,

"Leviathan, second story checking in." Leviathan said.

"Zero?" Harpuia asked, Zero looked at his comm. puzzled.

"Harpuia, we were supposed to be transferred to the inside?" he asked.

"Yes, you were supposed to be transferred to the top floor." Harpuia said.

"Something's not right, I suggest we should regroup." Zero said worriedly into his comm.

"Why what's the matter?" Leviathan's voice asked.

"I'm not inside the pyramid! I'm about..." he calculated the distance, "a mile from there." He heard Leviathan gasp and something that sounded like someone tripping in his comm.

"What do you mean you're a mile away?!" Harpuia's voice asked.

"Something must have gone wrong with the transfer but I fear for worse. Perhaps it was sabotaged." Zero said, climbed down from the tree and started walking towards the pyramid.

"Sabotage? By whom, the Executioners?" Harpuia asked and the answer came immediately, "I fear so. I'm afraid it might be a trap for the three of you."

"I see, hurry up and get here then. We'll continue..." Harpuia started but was interrupted by Fefnir,

"There are three of us now and no one can take on all three of us." Fefnir said arrogantly.

Zero had just warned them, what were they thinking? He decided to say something he couldn't let them fall into a trap if there was one.

"The executioners did." He said, he could almost hear Fefnir's liquids boiling.

"Zero, if we'll talk all day we won't get this mission done." Leviathan said impatiently.

"Do what you wish, I warned you. I'll be there as soon as I can. Be careful!" he said in his comm.

"Right." The three guardians said.

Zero looked around him; he had the unpleasant feeling of being watched. But then again, most chances are that he was watched. He decided to forget the walking and dashed ahead, cutting trees and vines with his beam saber.

**Meanwhile inside the pyramid, at Fefnir's level...**

Fefnir walked along the empty hall filled with statues he walked playfully comparing statues to the other guardians.

He looked at one most resembling Leviathan, it didn't look really like her but it was the closest of all statues in the room.

It was a statue of a woman with curly hair holding a javelin, her eyes really looked like Leviathan's except that they were stone gray.

"Mayans sure knew how to carve statues." Fefnir said to himself while checking the other statues.

The statue that really caught his interest was one of a bat, at least it seemed like one.

Fefnir assumed it was one of the Mayan gods so he studied it:

It was a giant bat-like creature with wingspans four times wider than he was.

The bat's face was ugly, looking so scary that unless the room was lit Fefnir would probably startle.

The creature had claws that looked sharp enough to rip right through Fefnir's armor.

Fefnir read something written in the base of the statue, it was in Mayan but luckily the guardians were programmed with all of the known languages so he could read the name: Camazotz.

Fefnir finally moved away from the statue, but with his gaze fixed on it. As if it was about to spring into life and attack him.

He finally exited the hall of statues to reach a corridor.

He walked a couple of steps before a giant axe swung from the ceiling and nearly chopped him in two.

The axe swung back and forth, threatening to slice anything in it's path.

Fefnir looked farther ahead and saw even more axes swinging in the corridor ahead.

They were like pendulums swinging back and forth, using their own momentum to stay in the same rhythm for eternity.

Fefnir enjoyed watching them swing, until he was bored.

He blasted the ropes that the axes hung on and the axes crashed into the floor with a loud noise.

Fefnir continued down the corridor and reached another hall, it had two staircases going down, one next to the other.

Fefnir looked at the staircases but didn't know which one to choose so he pointed at one and moved his arm so each time he was pointing at another staircase.

He counted to eleven, pointing at a different staircase with every number and ended up in the left staircase.

It was dark, but due to the infra-vision Fefnir had installed in his ocular sensors he was able to see fine.

The stairs finished in a large basement, Fefnir yelled as he saw what was in front of him, he was yelling for two seconds before he was knocked out.

**Meanwhile at the second floor...**

"I don't like this place." Leviathan said to herself, her arms crossed and her hands held the opposite elbows.

She was in a large empty room filled with cobwebs, large cobwebs.

She walked as silently as she could, not wanting to wake anything up.

The bravest reploid in the world would be afraid to be where she was, human sized cobwebs dangling in every corner, dust covering everything, the cold breeze that blew in the closed room and especially the whispers.

She was positive that she heard someone whispering, the voice was high but she couldn't hear what it was saying.

She continued down the hall, avoiding any cobweb she saw and she felt horrible.

"What if Zero was right?" She thought, "what if this is all a trap?"

Leviathan wasn't sure of this anymore; she left through the door as fast as she could, not glancing back once.

She suddenly heard a scream, a bloodcurdling scream of pure terror. She recognized that voice since she heard it so many times before, it was...

"Fefnir! Fefnir come in!" she heard Harpuia said in his comm. he must have heard the scream too.

Harpuia yelled for Fefnir for a couple of more minutes and then fell silent, as there was no response.

"Leviathan?" he asked, his voice shaking.

"Y... yes?" Leviathan responded.

"I think Zero was right... but then, we're trapped. If someone messed with the trans servers than we can't transfer away." Harpuia explained, the same thoughts were crossing Leviathan's head.

"I know, do you think Fefnir is...?" she started, she wanted to say dead but couldn't.

"I don't know, just wait where you are for me. I'll be right there." Harpuia said urgently.

"Okay Harpuia, please come quickly..." Leviathan said and leaned against a wall.

A few minutes passed since she talked to Harpuia and still there was no sign of him.

She was now tapping her fingers on her arm with impatience. Why was Harpuia so late?

She finally heard footsteps and saw a silhouette of a reploid enter the corridor she was in.

"Oh Harpuia where have you..." She finally saw the reploid and it was definitely not Harpuia.

She quickly turned on her comm. and managed to yell, "Help!" before being knocked out.

**Meanwhile at the third floor...**

Harpuia heard Leviathan shout help and then a screech.

He was terrified, he was sorry they didn't hear Zero's warning now.

He was alone, Zero was a mile away and only Harpuia was left, his heart equivalent was beating madly. He wouldn't take any chances so he drew his crimson sabers and lit them.

He was the finest of the guardians, the only one that nearly matched Zero's abilities.

His floor was a labyrinth, twisting corridors and turns and forks and dead ends. He was walking for what seemed like an hour before he reached the other end of the hall, just to be led into another. He sighed and continued walking, following the twisting corridors and taking a right at a fork.

He reached a dead end so he turned back and returned to the fork, but there wasn't any.

Harpuia looked around, there was a fork just there and he turned right. But now it was a straight road from the dead end to another corridor.

He shrugged and left towards the other corridor still suspicious.

The other corridor was a straight road leading to a dead end, Harpuia turned around to go back to where he had come from but it was a dead end too.

"What the?" he asked, and then turned around again to see that the road was now open.

"What is going on here?" he asked no one in particular.

"Harpuia." Zero's voice said in his comm.

"Yeah," Harpuia replied.

"I reached the pyramid and I'm in the fourth level. And is Leviathan okay? I heard her shout for help in my comm." Zero asked a slight concern in his voice.

"Zero, she and Fefnir they're MIA." Harpuia said with a whisper.

"What?!" Zero asked.

"I don't know what happened to them, it's just so weird. You were right; they must have set us up. We should have listened to you." Harpuia said.

"Never mind that, be careful I'll try to get to your floor but keep moving. If they're here they'll find you faster if you'll stay put. And try not to make any noise. From now on radio silence." Zero said and Harpuia whispered, "Okay."

Zero was inside a large entrance hall with two statues of the Camazotz.

Zero studied them and felt sick just by looking at it, such an intimidating figure he had never seen before.

His eyes widened when he realized this was a bat god.

"Thoth, Poseidon, Thor..." he counted on his fingers, "And this guy... Camazotz." He read the name from the base; surprising even himself he didn't remember knowing Mayan.

He heard an echoing scream from Harpuia, a scream from below him.

That was it, the guardians are all MIA it's just him against whoever is in here.

**To be continued...**

Sorry for the late post, I was sick as a dog today so I just managed to write it now.


	13. The mayan pyramid pt2

**Chapter 13: The Mayan pyramid pt.2**

Zero walked down the corridor he was in and reached a staircase going down.

He went down and landed on the third floor, right in front of the first maze.

He walked through the maze rather easily, each time he had reached a dead end he just retraced his steps and chose another path.

He walked through twisting passageways, corridors leading to dead ends and numerous forks leading to the unknown.

He walked through one corridor and saw a shadow creeping towards him.

He stopped dead in his tracks and drew his Z-saber.

The shadow crept up, drawing ever closer to Zero's corridor, it only had to take a left turn and it would face the last remaining guardian.

The shadow had finally arrived to the corner but as it moved to Zero's point of view there was nothing, the shadow vanished completely, but Zero felt an ominous presence about.

"Three guardians in the pyramid's depths, if you won't reach them they'll die three painful deaths!" a voice cackled.

"Who are you?" Zero asked the voice, who took it's time before answering.

"A nickel for your fears, a penny for your thoughts beware ye that stands against the mighty Camazotz." The voice chattered loudly.

Zero suddenly remembered something he didn't recall knowing, and said it aloud,

"Mighty? Camazotz was defeated by humans!" Zero taunted, the next time the voice spoke it was colder than before and the laughter was gone.

"Humans were always weak, the god they may have crushed but this reploid my friend will not be whitewashed!" the voice ended with a boom.

It was quiet again and the ominous presence has gone.

Zero stopped and listened for a moment, nothing.

He continued down the corridor and turned to the right, where the shadow came from.

He reached the opposite end of the room after about a quarter of an hour, only to find another one.

Zero sighed and went forward, he turned right at a fork but it was a dead end.

He turned back to the fork but there wasn't any, he had just turned right at a fork but the way he came from was no longer there; it was just a corridor from where he was standing to the other side.

He continued forward, his Z-saber still clutched in his hand.

The corridor turned right and so did Zero, to find he was staring at a dead end.

He turned around to go back to where he came from but there was a wall there.

"What the...?" Zero asked and turned around, to find the road open.

He continued forwards and reached another fork, he turned left this time and again reached a dead end, but when he turned around a different fork was there, leading straight, meaning to the right of the former fork, right, meaning where he came from, and left, a center road that wasn't there when Zero first reached the fork.

"A changing labyrinth." Zero said, suddenly he felt the ominous presence again.

"Walls do change and you don't know the way. My, my I wonder what will become of you today!" the voice whispered.

"Put a lid on it Camazotz, unless you're going to make this stupid maze stop changing." Zero said impatiently as he turned left, leading himself to another corridor.

He saw a black x on the floor and the voice said, "Here is where the flying one did scream, a scream of pure fright that just made me beam." The voice burst in laughter, cold screechy laughter that made Zero's synthetic skin crawl.

"Harpuia, he was here." Zero said to himself.

"The green clad reploid was here alright, even he didn't put up much of a fight." The voice chuckled to Zero's annoyance.

"I'm sick and tired of you stupid rhymes, is this your special attack? Are you going to annoy me to death?" Zero asked nonchalantly and walked further inside the pyramid as he reached a staircase leading to the second floor.

He was inside a giant hall filled with cobwebs and cocoons at least his size, and seemed to keep growing every second.

Suddenly one burst, revealing Harpuia.

"Harpuia!" Zero yelled and ran over to the reploid, only to receive a kick in the face.

Zero fell back on the floor and looked at Harpuia, wait a minute his eyes were red.

"A doppelganger!" Zero exclaimed.

He looked around him; the cocoons were the doppelgangers being produced.

Zero drew out his buster and blasted every single cocoon in the room. The Harpuia doppelganger did nothing to prevent it.

A large robotic spider came inside the room from the corridor opposite of Zero and pseudo Harpuia jumped on it.

He pointed at Zero and the spider sprinted on its spindly legs at him.

Zero jumped in the air and landed behind the spider, but the Harpuia doppelganger threw one of his beam daggers at him and Zero had to fall flat on his back to avoid getting sliced.

The spider pounced at Zero, using the momentary pause for his advantage.

Zero however rolled away and managed to slice off the left row of legs and the spider screeched.

Zero rolled unto his feet and silenced the mecha-spider.

Pseudo Harpuia then jumped into the air with his one blade drawn, the blade was longer than that of the original Harpuia and was about as long as the Z-saber.

They fenced, blocking and stabbing at each other. Zero finally got the advantage as 'Harpuia' was very close to a wall. Zero jumped over Harpuia, kicked the wall and used the momentum to punch pseudo Harpuia in the face, sending him backwards.

He was much weaker than the original, with or without the spider.

'Harpuia' stood up and sprinted forwards, his blade raised to slice Zero.

Zero ducked and with an upper slash sliced pseudo Harpuia from the middle of his pelvis area up to the middle of his head; leaving two symmetrical halves falling next to each other.

Zero went over and looked at the spider, the spider manufactured the cocoons that then built the doppelgangers inside just like a capsule and burst, as the doppelgangers were ready.

Luckily, Zero destroyed the spider and the cobwebs, securing Neo-Arcadia from further doppelgangers.

He proceeded down the corridor and found another black x on the floor.

"Here the lady screamed with fright, I must admit she looked alright." The ominous presence came back and the voice could be heard.

Zero went mad, "If you touched even one hair on her head I will personally make you a part of this pyramid you adore so much!" Zero yelled at the voice, and felt the ominous presence vanish.

He continued down another set of staircases and found himself in a large room filled with statues. The statues each had a name on their base.

He looked at one randomly and looked at the base, the name crumbled with age but there was something written next to it, "died while attacking Camazotz."

Zero looked around and saw a statue that looked a lot like Leviathan, except it had curly hair and stone gray eyes.

The woman was holding a javelin in one hand and her other hand was on her hip.

The name also seemed to have crumbled, but as Zero noticed there were no intact names on any statue. On her base it read: "Killed Camazotz and died from his lethal claw" in Mayan, Zero didn't know where he knew Mayan from but it didn't bother him too much right now.

A loud hiss startled Zero, he looked around before he realized it was Camazotz's voice again.

"This woman I fear because she killed me with her spear. Your friend reminded me of her so the first into the eyes of death she will stare." The voice said, and Zero realized he didn't have much more time. He couldn't let Camazotz kill Leviathan.

Zero reached another statue of Camazotz and blasted it with his buster.

An even louder hiss was heard and the voice vanished.

Zero walked into a seemingly empty hallway, but as he took the second step a large axe swung in front of him, missing his nose by inches.

Zero stumbled backwards and noticed two more axes swinging.

There were three axes in all and Zero had to count on his speed to avoid being chopped.

He looked at the axe that was swinging in front of him in a constant rhythm, he calculated the time and dashed forwards, going past all three axes at once and reaching a hallway.

He continued down the hallway to find two staircases leading down.

He randomly picked the right one and went down, he landed in an underground level and it seemed both staircases led to the same place.

Another X marked where Fefnir fell but the voice said nothing.

Zero looked at the horrifying scene in front of him, Leviathan, Harpuia and Fefnir were sitting tied in chairs placed on trap doors.

Zero heard a roaring sound below him and felt the warmth of the floor and he could only guess that those trap doors led to red-hot lava.

"No go away Zero!" Leviathan struggled to say, "He'll get you too..." she said.

Fefnir and Harpuia were apparently out; on their necks were two bleeding punctures.

It seemed that Camazotz drank their fluids to fuel his own system.

Leviathan was the only one without the punctures, but she was beaten pretty badly, her face bruised and there was a trail of red fluids from the corner of her mouth.

A cold laughter filled the room as Camazotz announced his arrival; he landed right in front of Zero, who almost screamed in horror at the sight of the bat-reploid.

I am afraid that I am incapable of describing exactly how horrifying Camazotz was, his face were as scary as death; two yellow pupils were embedded in his ruby eyes.

Two long ears decorated his head and two gigantic wings came out of his back.

He had a smile as sweet as honey and as terrifying as a medusa.

Camazotz walked over to Leviathan, he held something in his hand that seemed like a remote.

"One step closer and they will die." Camazotz said in a different voice than his mocking laughter. He was dead serious and as frightening as a basilisks stare.

He crouched near Leviathan and turned her head towards Zero.

"Look at her." He said, "Or she will die."

Zero forced himself to look at Leviathan, her face frozen in terror.

"If you hurt her..." Zero started but to his surprise the bat reploid licked the red fluid coming from Leviathan's mouth with a long crimson tongue and seemed as if he was savoring every moment.

Leviathan however seemed disgusted but couldn't do anything due to the metal ropes holding her in place. She tried moving her head but Camazotz held it in his claw.

The bat reploid proceeded by tilting her head and sinking his teeth into her neck.

She let out a soft moan and suddenly her eyes rolled slowly upwards.

The bat sucked out her fluids with moans of pleasure, whether it was to watch Zero's tortured face as he did it or was it tasty for him to drink Zero could not tell.

"The ultimate torture." A voice behind Zero said, "Having to watch your loved one die." Zero turned around to face two cold green eyes. Vulture.

"Bullion warned you, you fool. Now you will pay the consequences of interfering with the executioners." Vulture's cold eyes stared directly at his.

Leviathan became paler with every second, as her vital fluids were sucked into Camazotz who seemed to be savoring every drop.

Even if Zero thought he could rescue Leviathan before Camazotz would press the remote, still Vulture was in his way. And Zero knew that trying to take on an executioner by himself would be the last mistake he will ever make.

It seemed like hours, Camazotz moans of pleasure filled the air and Vulture stood in front of Zero with his cold eyes shining, as if daring Zero to do anything.

It then finally ended, Leviathan's eyes stopped rolling and she fell limp. Deactivated.

When Camazotz removed his fangs from her neck it wasn't even bleeding.

The bat-like reploid licked his lips with a grin, or at least what was the equivalent of a grin to him.

Zero's rage kept rising and rising, he couldn't take it anymore.

With a battle cry he jumped at Vulture, and kicked him straight in the head.

Vulture fell on his back, so surprised by Zero's sudden strength and speed that he forgotten about Camazotz.

He quickly stood up and ran in order to battle Zero but was transferred by someone else, with a howl of "No!"

Zero punched Camazotz's face, hurting his hand with Camazotz's fangs.

"You monster!" Zero yelled and kicked Camazotz in the face.

"How could you!? She was helpless you freak!" he kicked Camazotz a second time but Camazotz wouldn't stand for it. He caught Zero's foot and threw at the wall in such strength that Zero created an impression of himself in the stone.

"You're dead bat!" Zero said.

"We shall see, Zero." The bat said, his eyes shun in yellow.

**Meanwhile elsewhere...**

"Vulture I am very disappointed with you." Bullion scolded.

"The master ordered us not to assault Zero or the guardians ourselves but let our reploids take care of it."

"Bullion, you should have seen the look on his face. It was unlike any expression of pain or anger I have seen in my life, and I have seen plenty." Vulture argued.

"If Zero will manage to destroy Camazotz than it will be up to us to destroy him according to the master's plan understood?" he asked Vulture, who bowed and nodded before leaving the room.

"Master never explained himself, how would I know if his plan is the right course of action? No, I shall not doubt the master. He has taken me in and taught me almost everything I know. I can't possibly think such thoughts." Vulture struggled silently in his mind.

**To be continued...**


	14. Camazotz

Author notes: Hey what's up guys? Where did you go? I haven't received a review for three chapters and I usually get 2-4 per chapter. Let me know you're out there guys, review!

**Chapter 14: Camazotz**

"I am going to _kill_ you!" Zero shouted.

"We'll see about that." Camazotz responded, confidence in his voice.

Zero didn't care if he would die, he didn't care about Fefnir or Harpuia. The only thing he cared about was...

"Vengeance!" Zero yelled at the top of his voice, and with that a crimson flame surrounded him. Breathing heavily he stared with red gleaming eyes at Camazotz.

**Elsewhere... **

**  
**Bullion, who sat until now in front of a monitor showing Camazotz's video feed stood up so fast that the chair he sat on slid backwards and crashed against the wall.

"What's the matter?" Whirlpool asked, gracefully moving next to him and looking at the screen. Her eyes widened in shock as she saw the feed from the monitor.

"Is that...? Zero?" she asked, her voice shaking slightly.

"L...look at his energy levels, this is impossible..." Bullion stuttered, pointing at a rising number on the bottom left of the screen.

Whirlpool's eyes looked at the numbers and she gasped, clapping her hand to her mouth gently.

"Bullion, he's... he's stronger than you!" she said, her voice now shaking uncontrollably.

"Vulture, Daemon... Get her now!" Bullion yelled into his own comm.

In a second Vulture and Daemon dashed out of the darkness and stood in front of Bullion.

"What's the matter?" Daemon asked, staring at the looks on Whirlpool and Bullion's faces.

He and Vulture stepped next to them Vulture's eyes widened as he saw the number in the bottom left, still rising at a stunning rate.

They heard Camazotz speaking to them in a squeaky voice, his confidence left him and he was begging them to transfer him away.

"I'm on it." Bullion said and was about to press a few buttons on his comm. before a dark, strong but calm voice stopped him. The voice was so calm it gave a feeling of tranquility. But at the same time it was strong enough to be very intimidating, and very dark and menacing.

"No. I want to see what Zero can do." The voice said calmly.

"Master!" Vulture said, "Surely you won't let Zero face that monster! Zero will tear him apart, he's stronger than Bullion master and his energy reading is rising by the minute!" Vulture said urgently, looking at the screen often. To see if something is happening to his reploid.

"Do not transfer him back." The voice said.

"Master! He's a reploid, we have to get him out of there!" Vulture yelled at the disembodied voice.

"The master has spoken." Bullion said dangerously.

"Do not transfer to help him." The master commanded.

Whirlpool placed her hand on Vulture's shoulder and said softly in his ear, "I'm sorry Vulture."

She felt so sorry for him. She herself was in endless agony when Poseidon, the reploid she put so much of her into was destroyed.

Vulture couldn't believe it; his master didn't want him to save his own reploid.

Daemon looked at Vulture in pity, he knew how he felt when Thoth was destroyed when he saw Thoth's look of terror as Aztec Falcon was about to destroy him Daemon just couldn't take it anymore and dashed off to his chambers.

Bullion felt sorry for Vulture, but the master had told them that they shouldn't create their reploids in order to be their companions. But to be warriors that will slow down Zero so the master will be able to estimate Zero's skill.

He was fiercely loyal to the master; nothing no one will ever say would change it.

He was prepared to die a million times in order to protect the master.

He closed his eyes and shook his head slowly, in discontent by Vulture's behavior.

He himself never knew any emotion; the only thing that mattered to him was to do the master's bidding.

Vulture shook off Whirlpool's shoulder and dashed up at such a high speed that the monitor flew from the table and smashed on the floor.

At that Bullion unplugged that monitor and plugged in another one with a sigh.

Whirlpool ran off after Vulture, to comfort him.

Daemon looked out at the darkness and addressed the disembodied voice:

"I can't believe you master, you promised me that you will make sure no one will be treated like I was, like a test subject. I can't believe you are going to let Camazotz be destroyed by that monster."

"Daemon! It is not your place to question the master's action." Bullion scolded, a scowl on his face.

"You know nothing Bullion. You comfortably lived here with the master, not knowing what it is like losing your loved ones, not knowing what it was like to feel pain..." Daemon was interrupted by Bullion,

"I did feel pain when I trained with the master..." Bullion was then interrupted by Daemon, "You know nothing about real pain!" and left in a fast walk towards the darkness, leaving Bullion alone in the room.

Bullion crossed his arms on his chest and stood in front of the monitor, due to the fact that his chair was smashed against the wall.

**Back inside the pyramid...**

Zero's crimson flame was now taking most of the room and he launched at Camazotz, his flame enveloped him like a fireball.

"Pathetic fool, you will die by these hands! These hands that control the fate of so many, these hands that can both create and destroy, these hands that will tear you limb by limb you MAVERICK!" And with that shout Zero rammed Camazotz so hard that Camazotz crashed into the nearest wall.

Camazotz recovered and tried to escape but failed as Zero struck him again, this time with his fist. Zero's fist connected with Camazotz's back and Camazotz rolled in the air before crashing on the floor.

Harpuia opened his eyes and saw a red flame surrounding a crimson clad reploid with blond hair. Zero didn't look at all like himself now, his armor was completely red. But it might have been an optic illusion caused by the red flame. His hair was wild and he was shaking completely.

"You will die Maverick, yes you will." Zero smiled insanely, his eyes were wild but focused, and his pupils shrunk and gave him the look of a madman.

"Please..." Camazotz cowered, "Please don't... I was just following orders..." the terror in his voice was so clear that even Bullion, who never experienced emotion in his life felt sorry for him.

"ORDERS?" Zero roared with a maniacal grin, "ORDERS?! WERE YOUR ORDERS TO TORTURE POOR LEVIATHAN LIKE THAT YOU MONSTER?! YOU MAVERICKS MUST ALL BE DESTROYED!" Zero shouted and the red flame around him grew greatly.

Harpuia looked quickly to his side as he heard Leviathan's name and he found an unpleasant sight of a pale and deactivated Leviathan, two holes in her neck.

"No..." Harpuia muttered, closing his eyes.

Zero punched Camazotz in his abdomen, creating a massive dent in the armor.

"No! Please..." Camazotz begged, "mercy..." he muttered.

"MERCY?! YOU DARE SPEAK OF MERCY WITH ME YOU FOOL? DID YOU HAVE ANY MERCY FOR LEVIATHAN? DID YOU HAVE ANY FOR THE GUARDIANS?" Zero's voice just got louder and louder, what was once a hint of insanity was now a clear shaking tone of it.

"Fefnir!" Harpuia said and tried to kick the red reploid's foot.

Fefnir opened his eyes slowly and looked at Harpuia.

"Arm cannon Fefnir." Harpuia said and Fefnir nodded, blasting the floor next to him and destroying the chair he was sitting on, he fell backwards and slipped through the metal rope that was holding him and then did the same for Harpuia.

They both stood up, giving a sad look over to Leviathan.

"Do you think they will be able to repair her?" Fefnir asked.

"Maybe, if we get her to them quickly. But I don't know about the trans servers..." Harpuia said.

"We have to try Harpuia." Fefnir said.

"Let's go," Harpuia said, glancing over at Zero and Camazotz, "This is Zero's fight." He said and grabbed Leviathan, he and Fefnir then transferred away.

"Please, forgive me I was forced to do this..." Camazotz lied to save his hide.

"FORGIVENESS?! YOU DARE ASK FOR FORGIVENESS? YOUR ABSOLUTON WILL ONLY BE GIVEN TO YOU BY WHATEVER GOD YOU WORSHIP NOT BY ME!" Zero shouted and with a mighty blow to Camazotz's head the head flew clean of the winged shoulders and crashed into the wall, exploding into burning pieces.

**Elsewhere...**

Bullion shut off the snowed screen, walking away slowly into the darkness.

"Bullion, do not blame yourself. You acted as you were expected." The master's voice said.

"I know, but this will undoubtedly cause a rift between me and the others." Bullion said.

The master did not replied, an obvious sign he did not want to continue this conversation so Bullion walked away, fading into the darkness...

**To be continued...**

Author notes: Don't forget review! I need to know you guys are still out there!

Oh and by the way tomorrow's chapter is going to be an executioners chapter.


	15. Hesitation

Author notes: Hello, well I want you to know there is a reason for Zero sounding like Copy X so don't worry about it, remember an important rule everything has a reason.

And since when did I say Zero was an avatar of death? He was just really angry, I can't seem to think of anyone who would use a wide vocabulary to express his rage after seeing his love dying in front of him because of someone.

**Chapter 15: Hesitation**

Vulture was standing upside down, his talons grasping the ceiling.

There was a soft knock on the metal door and Whirlpool's voice was heard hesitantly,

"Vulture?"

"Come in." Vulture said, not moving at all.

Whirlpool opened the door and stepped in quietly, closing the door gently behind her.

"Listen, Vulture... I'm sorry about Camazotz." Whirlpool started.

"I fail to understand our master, he always said that reploids were treated as inferiors, test subjects, servants no, forget that, slaves." Vulture said harshly.

"Well, I guess he just wanted to know what we were standing up against before we ourselves had to face him." Whirlpool said, sitting oriental style on the floor right in front of Vulture.

"Alexia," Vulture said with a sigh, only he was allowed to call her Alexia. After all that was her name for almost a century.

"I don't know if the master is right anymore. After sacrificing Camazotz like that I don't think he meant all of the things he said."

"Vulture! You've never doubted the master before!" Whirlpool said in surprise.

"I know, but after this incident I don't know if I can trust him anymore." Vulture said it hadn't been a second and the door burst open, a raging Bullion stood in the doorway.

"How dare you doubt the master?! After he gave you so much? He gave you a shelter and these facilities and a safe haven while others rejected you!" Bullion shouted and stepped heavily towards Vulture, who landed on the floor.

Whirlpool stood up and positioned herself between Vulture and Bullion who seemed more than ready to start fighting.

"Hey you two, stop it right now." She said, holding her hand on Vulture's chest forcefully to prevent him from moving forwards.

Daemon just stepped inside the room and looked at the three reploids.

"Knock it off, the master wants to speak to us." He said.

Bullion shot Vulture a venomous look before leaving with Daemon.

"The way you two looked at each other..." Whirlpool said.

They all assembled in the main hall, stood in a semi circle around a holographic capsule.

A bluish figure appeared in the capsule, a robe covering all of it, and a hood covering its head.

Inside the hood were two bluish orbs, staring at the executioners.

"Master, we are all here." Bullion said, kneeling in front of the hologram, followed by Daemon and Whirlpool.

Vulture was reluctant but also kneeled in front of it.

"It is time to initiate the next step in my plan. You all know what to do. I have prepared upgrades for you, so enter the capsule one at a time and receive them.

"Yes master." The four said in unison, Vulture's voice quite weaker than the others'

Bullion was the first; he entered the capsule and the capsule closed. Steam flooded the capsule and a transmitter ray shot through the top of the capsule.

The capsule opened and the steam dispersed, revealing Bullion in all of his new armor.

The armor was golden as was it's predecessor, but it shone brighter and was lighter but provided better protection. Bullion had also received new weapons; two beam sabers glowing in yellow.

In the front of the armor was embedded by a platinum 'B' and Bullion's hands were now equipped with retractable claws.

His ears were also equipped with long-range sonar imaging, when activated he could see through walls.

Bullion looked at his new upgrades and smiled viciously, knowing he was stronger than ever.

Next was Daemon, the capsule again filled with steam and Daemon stepped out with his new battle armor:

His horns were twice as big, his chain ball was converted unto a beam chain ball leaving his arm free when he wasn't using it, his armor became a darker shade of red and as was with Bullion it was lighter and offered more protection his torso had a silver 'D' engraved on it.

After that was whirlpool: Her harpoons were converted into energy tipped harpoons making them much more useful, her armor now included retractable fins for underwater fighting and it was now darker in color, and a silver 'W' was engraved on her torso.

Vulture was last, as he entered he felt anxious. The transmitter ray hit the top of the holo-capsule and now he wore his new armor.

Still black in color, now it offered him much more options; his double-edged beam saber was upgraded as well. Allowing the blades to reach a greater distance and there was a leather covering in the middle of it for better grip.

Vulture's armor was still black; a golden 'V' decorated the torso and helmet.

His wing like jetpacks were improved; now he was able to speed up to much greater speeds in the air than he used to.

His hands also were placed with retractable talons, allowing him to grip walls and ceilings. His spiked boots became even sharper than before and his armor too was much lighter and it could protect him much more.

Vulture didn't smile, nor did he feel pleased; he hesitated, what was the master trying to achieve? Many questions popped inside of Vulture's head and he decided he needs some relaxation; he left to his chamber, Whirlpool's gaze following him.

Whirlpool also left for her chamber, she decided to leave Vulture alone for the time being.

After both of them had left Daemon and Bullion sat down in front of a table of holo-chess and started to discuss battle tactics.

"I personally think that close range combat should be avoided when fighting against Zero. His saber skills are unmatched." Bullion said thoughtfully to Daemon.

"Indeed, but should we attack him with a weapon he is not familiar with; like 'Spike'" Daemon gave his spike ball a name for fun, and started using it regularly until he couldn't think of any other way to call his ball of spikes, "Then he would not be able to form a proper strategy. Especially if he had never fought us before." Daemon finished, his mouth in a smile, he liked discussing combat tactics with the other three. It was very useful and very informative since each of them mastered a different technique the discussions allowed him to learn many things he did not know about certain combat styles, thus improving his chances in a combat against those particular combat styles.

"Perhaps, but I believe that one must exploit his enemy's weakness. Zero is best with his Z-saber, so attacking him from a distance should prove very efficient." Bullion smiled as he moved his pawn forward.

"You have a point but there are some melee weapons that can also be used in a way that will keep Zero's saber away. Take Vulture's beam saber for example, he can fight with it and the blade is large enough to keep Zero a good couple of feet away." Daemon explained,

"Correct, but should he perform a mistake? If Zero would get a chance to attack him up front then hew would most likely disarm him." Bullion said knowingly.

"A reploid of Vulture's level will not make any mistakes of that kind. Remember, he is second only to you and the master." Daemon said, his eyes staring directly at Bullion's while moving his castle to eat one of Bullion's pawns.

"He is powerful I must admit, and skilled too. But Zero has surpassed even my own energy level so I doubt that if Zero should once again get into a tantrum like that his skill would help him. Zero crushed Camazotz in his bare hands without bothering to draw his weapon." Bullion said as he moved his knight to eat Daemon's castle.

"If that is so then none of us can stand up to him." Daemon rubbed his chin as he moved his bishop to eat Bullion's knight.

"The master's plan will work. He had planned for any possible complication, once we will be briefed about our next missions then he will explain what we must do." Bullion said with pride in his voice as he moved one of his pawns to eat Daemon's bishop.

"Then the guardians will pay." Daemon said as he moved one of his own pawns and ate one of Bullion's.

"Yes, then the guardians will pay." Bullion agreed.

**After a while, elsewhere...**

"What have I done?" Zero asked himself with a shaking voice as he wondered the jungle.

"I don't believe I said those things... What is happening to me? Why are all these thoughts coming to my head? Camazotz begged me and I didn't listen... I laughed in his face and crushed him... I gave him no mercy, I..." He couldn't bear to say it, "I'm no better than Copy X." A tear ran down on his cheek, he didn't know reploids could cry. He caught it with his finger and held it in front of his face.

"I can't... I just can't return to Neo-Arcadia... What will I say to Harpuia? I failed them, Camazotz killed Leviathan and I did nothing..." as he said those words he was transferred away.

Fefnir awaited him in the mission room, a smirk on his face. Trying to hide the tears in his eyes.

"Hey Zero... Leviathan is going to be all right, they are just refilling her now. Luckily she wasn't injured seriously and was just drained of her energy fluids." Fefnir said, wiping a tear.

Zero ran in a burst of speed, not to the infirmary but to his room.

In his dash he accidentally bumped into a female reploid and before she even hit the floor he caught her in his arms.

She wore a maid's uniform and near her was a cart filled with cleaning materials.

She had ocean blue eyes and long ocean blue hair to fit them, she was gorgeous one of the most beautiful women Zero had ever seen.

"I'm sorry... I didn't see you there, who are you?" Zero asked as she adjusted her uniform.

"I'm the cleaner, Mr. Zero, I just finished your room." The cleaner said.

"Do you have a name?" Zero asked, staring into her eyes.

"Yes Mr. Zero, my name is Alexia." The cleaner said and moved on.

**To be continued...**

Remember to review!


	16. Sabotage

**Chapter 16: Sabotage**

Zero looked at the female walking gracefully down the hallway until she disappeared.

He then walked slowly into his room, he spoke to voice lock and the door opened. Zero absent-mindedly he entered the room and went for the PRS but as he passed the mirror and looked at his reflection he noticed someone else was standing in the room,

"Harpuia!" Zero exclaimed as he turned to greet the jade reploid.

"Zero." Harpuia nodded at the scarlet reploid.

"Harpuia, I'm sorry I lost my nerve back there... I'll understand if you'll dismiss me from being a guardian." Zero lowered his head.

"Dismiss you? I just came here to congratulate you. All by yourself you destroyed the strongest of the four reploids that the executioners sent upon us." A pleasant smile appeared on Harpuia's face.

"And if what I heard from our operators is true, you managed to knock one of those bastards to the ground." Zero forgot completely about the operators being tuned in at every moment of the mission.

"I don't know what happened to me, I went berserk and the power I had was simply amazing." Zero said looking at his hand.

"I think I can explain that," Harpuia said and drew a small holographic projector from his pocket.

"Your PRS detected an abnormality in your CPU, it seems that you have some sort of chip installed unfamiliar with us." A small holographic chip just appeared in Harpuia's palm.

"It's irremovable, meaning that if we do as much as slightly budge that chip you'll self destruct in enough power to destroy all of Neo-Arcadia. It seems like someone planted this chip in you, but I can't tell who. We call this a 'Frenzy chip' when your anger reaches a certain level the chip takes over magnifying your power to gigantic standards. We don't know exactly how strong can this chip make you but we know that once it takes over you lose control of yourself." Harpuia explained.

"So what you are telling me is that I am not responsible for killing Camazotz, but this chip is?" Zero asked, hoping.

"Exactly, it was that chip that spoke like Copy X not you." Harpuia said what Zero was thinking.

"But, why am I having these thoughts even when that chip isn't active?" Zero asked.

"It happens only after you're angry, think about it." Harpuia was right; Hyena angered him by calling him maverick. The second time he was angry because Harpuia almost defeated him. The third time was when Zero was angry about the humans' behavior and the fourth time was after he fought Thor and Bullion has offered him to join their ranks. Zero realized Harpuia was right, and decided to change the subject.

"So Harpuia, tell me who's the new cleaner?" Zero asked.

"What do you mean?" Harpuia replied with a curious look.

"You know, the cleaner girl that cleans the rooms. Alexia she said her name was." Zero said.

"But we don't have a... RUN!" Harpuia shouted and jumped to his feet the two just narrowly exited the room before an explosion knocked them to the opposite wall.

Zero groaned and he stood up slowly.

"Sabotage!" Harpuia said, "Inside the Neo-Arcadian core I don't believe it!" He was obviously shocked of the security breach. "But how did they place the bomb without the bomb detector going wild?" he asked.

"It has to be someone with access to a security terminal which means someone of the military." Harpuia said as he and Zero walked over to the mission room.

"Yes, but who would like to kill you? Maybe Fenrir Hahira..." Harpuia said and Zero recognized the last name.

"Hahira? As in Hyena Hahira?" He asked Harpuia, who stared at him.

"Yes, his brother is Fefnir's second in command." Harpuia explained, "He is very familiar with explosives but you said there was a female reploid that you talked to, he might have paid her to throw us off track." Harpuia suspected loudly, turning heads in the mission room.

"I think you'd better talk a bit more quietly." Zero suggested.

"Everyone back to work! If I see another face looking at me you're all fired." Harpuia said harshly and all of the operators and various assistants returned to work.

"I think I need to talk to this fellow." Zero said, "You try to find out more about that girl, see if you can find anything about her. She had dark blue hair and eyes, was about as tall as Leviathan, in fact she resembled her a lot. Look up anyone fitting that description and see if you can find anything." Zero said and left the mission room.

He left towards the training room, knowing that Fefnir would probably be inside. He planned to ask Fefnir where this Fenrir was but was in luck.

He entered the room and found Fefnir talking to a rather feral-looking wolf-like reploid.

"Fefnir!" Zero exclaimed as he entered, drawing the attention of both reploid.

The wolf-like reploid immediately saluted.

"At ease." Fefnir said and the wolf ended his salute.

"What is it Zero? Something you'd like to talk to me about?" Fefnir asked.

"Yes, I'd like to talk to your second in command, one Fenrir Hahira." Zero informed but the answer came not from Fefnir but from the wolf-like reploid next to him.

"I am Fenrir Hahira sir!"

"Yes I'd like to talk to you then, Fefnir will you excuse us?" Zero asked politely.

"Yes, I'll just be off..." Fefnir said and left the training room, shutting the door behind him.

"Mr. Hahira, as you probably know your brother was killed because of me. He lost his temper and while trying to attack me he attacked Ms. Leviathan." Zero said formally.

"I know of that shameful display by from my brother's side sir but I assure you I am not like him! I will not attack any guardian unless I will see proof of that guardian being a maverick sir!" Fenrir said.

"Good, I just wanted to inform you that I am sorry for your loss. I never intended for Hyena to be killed." Zero said and Fenrir shouted, "Thank you sir I appreciate it sir!"

"Where did you get the name Fenrir Mr. Hahira?" Zero asked, trying to know Fenrir closely will be the best step in order to make peace with him. Zero thought.

"My first name is that of an ancient Viking monster, the myth says that he was son of Loki the giant Fenrir was a gigantic wolf that was so fierce that only Odin the chief of the gods' son Tyr would try and feed him sir! The other gods decided to chain him, so they got the dwarves to make a magic chain, made of secret things like the noise of a moving cat, the roots of a mountain and the breath of a fish. It seemed like a cord made of silk, but nothing could break it. Fenrir got suspicious and didn't let anyone go near it unless Tyr's hand was in his mouth. The other gods then chained Fenrir and Fenrir bit Tyr's hand off sir!" Fenrir explained like a true mythologist.

"Interesting..." Zero said, thinking of anything else to say.

"I thank you for your time Mr. Hahira, dismissed." Zero said and left the room.

**Meanwhile at the mission room...**

"Look up all known images of the following description:

Species: Reploid

Gender: Female

Hair: Dark blue

Eyes: Dark blue

Height: Six and a half feet long

Armor: None

Name: Alexia, might be an alias." Harpuia said to the operators, who immediately input the information into their computers.

The large main screen flashed with various pictures of female reploids, including Leviathan and then stopped on an image.

"Match." The operators said, the image was that of one tall and muscled reploid standing on a sand dune, his face covered with a hood along with a blue haired, blue-eyed reploid holding a spear-like weapon.

"The image was taken by a reconnaissance group of Pantheons who were found deactivated in the desert." One of the operators informed.

The female reploid did resemble Leviathan greatly, if you changed her facial notes a bit, the cold stare in her eyes and the color of her hair you would have gotten a perfect copy.

"I'm interested in the reploid next to her." Harpuia said and the image focused on the reploid.

He wore a torn black robe that only reached his ankles and a torn hood covered his face with a shadow.

In one hand he held a beam weapon of a kind but the torn robe blocked it so Harpuia couldn't determine what weapon it was but it vaguely resembled something he had seen before.

The reploid was muscled, seen on the reploid's arms and legs.

He was staring at the camera with two orbs of emerald and a stare that was even colder than that of the woman next to him.

"Those eyes..." Harpuia said to himself.

"Compare this image to image number four hundred seventy three from my personal image bank." Harpuia ordered.

Immediately a second picture appeared next to it, of Vulture in his battle armor.

The computer beeped and then several lines appeared to be drawing from each component of Vulture in his battle armor and to the robed reploid.

"Match." The computer announced. The eyes were the same and the weapons matched to be the double-edged beam saber.

The muscles the reploid had matched with those seen on the tight ultra-rubber parts of Vulture's armor (The specially made rubber armor protecting most of the body while the heavy armor protected the critical areas).

"Compare it to an image from Leviathan's image bank number four hundred forty nine authorization: Harpuia code zeta." Harpuia said and another image appeared, this time of Whirlpool in her battle armor.

"Focus on the female again." Harpuia said and the female reploid appeared instead of Vulture.

"Match." Said the computer again without even being ordered to compare them.

"Save file and send it to my personal terminal." Harpuia said and ran out of the room.

He then realized he had no idea where Zero is; he decided to check in the infirmary just in case Zero was visiting Leviathan.

He was right luckily, Zero was in the infirmary sitting in a chair next to the deactivated body of Leviathan.

"Zero," Harpuia started, and then both said in unison:

"It wasn't Fenrir."

Harpuia started explaining about the female reploid, along the way cursing the security system for allowing such a thing to happen.

"You mean she was an executioner?" Zero asked after Harpuia finished.

"Yes, it was that Whirlpool the one who created Poseidon." Harpuia said quickly,

"We have to get ready I believe their base is in the desert. The only possible location however is that of an old deserted stronghold of mavericks, the inhabitants destroyed less then a century ago by maverick internal wars." Harpuia said.

"Some of us need to stay here though, what if the executioners will attack in our absence?" Zero asked.

"Right, okay you and I will remain and I'll send Fefnir along with the best reploids we've got. I will awaken X's guard." Harpuia said.

"Okay I'll go brief him then, where are his quarters?" Zero asked.

"Take a left in the second turn after your room and you'll reach it." Harpuia said.

Zero dashed off, he ran all the way to his room that was being cleaned by several reploids.

He took a left in the second turn and reached a corridor with five doors:

There were two doors to the left, two doors to the right and one in the end of the corridor.

The doors to the left had been labeled with a golden plaque "Leviathan" and "Harpuia"

The two doors on the right were "Phantom" and "Fefnir" the one in the end of the hallway was labeled "Master X" that was where Harpuia currently resided, his old room empty.

Zero went to the second door to the right and knocked three times.

There was a strange sound as if something was being transferred away from inside and Fefnir opened the door a few seconds later.

"What's up Zero? Want to go duel a bit?" Fefnir asked.

"No, you have a mission. We found out where the executioners are and now Harpuia is waking up X's guard for an attack on their base." Zero said.

"What? All right, what about you Zero? Will you be staying here or coming along?" Fefnir asked.

"Me an Harpuia must stay here if the executioners decide to attack in your absence then we'll be here to protect Neo-Arcadia." Zero said.

Suddenly Fefnir's comm. lit up and the operator said:

"Mr. Fefnir please report to desert landing pad."

"I'll come with you there." Zero offered.

He walked Fefnir down to the outside of the base, they were transported by a shuttle to the desert landing pad, a gigantic platform in the middle of the desert filled with gun-ships military transports and bombers.

They arrived over there and a reploid briefed Fefnir about his mission.

Harpuia was flying high above the landing pad, watching carefully with his sharp eagle's eye.

Fefnir said goodbye to Zero and boarded one of the military transports, they were going to attack from the ground but they took several gun-ships along just in case.

Zero watched Fefnir's transport flying away and suddenly as if in slow motion it exploded above the landing pad, along with every other transport that took to the air.

The shockwave knocked Zero off of his feet and unto his rear and he stared in disbelief.

The transports fell burning to the landing pad, crushing the aerial fleet of Neo-Arcadia almost completely.

"No!" Zero yelled and jumped to his leg, sprinting up to the crashed transport of Fefnir.

He started digging in the ruins and debris, throwing chunks of metal everywhere until he fell to his knees.

He saw Fefnir's arm cannon, severed and burnt and crushed.

It was clear to him now, Fefnir was dead... it was another sabotage.

Harpuia yelled behind him at the landing pad's personnel, how Harpuia got there Zero did not know, or cared.

All he knew was that the executioners managed a crippling blow to the guardians and Neo-Arcadia, he could imagine them laughing somewhere inside their base, taunting and teasing him. Waiting for him to lose control again and in his rage destroy Neo-Arcadia.

**To be continued...**


	17. Alone

**Chapter 17: Alone**

Zero couldn't believe it; Fefnir was dead. Fefnir was dead. The thought alone scared him. He couldn't bear to stare at the ruined arm cannon anymore so he dashed off, jumping off the platform and dashing back to the base at incredible speed; kicking up sand behind him.

He ran across the desert like a sand storm nothing stopped him. He suddenly stopped in his tracks. A familiar brown cloak was sticking out of the sand.

He remembered wearing it when he wondered in the desert; he dropped it right before he reached the resistance base about a year ago. Seeing that cloak made him feel so lonely as he realized that now Fefnir was dead and Leviathan was under repairs. He was so alone.

Zero felt someone was behind him, he heard the soft sand squashing under his or her boots. He drew his Z-saber and whirled around to face a surprised Harpuia who raised his hands in the air to signify he was unarmed.

"Calm down Zero, it's just me." Harpuia said, his arms still raised.

"How do I know it's you?" Zero asked.

"Zero look at my eyes, remember the Harpuia you thought in the pyramid? What color were his eyes?" Harpuia asked.

"Red, but yours are green. Still how do I know they haven't just colored your eyes?" Zero asked, his Z-saber in his hand.

Harpuia looked at him apprehensively and then flew high up into the air.

"It's the chip isn't it?" he asked Zero.

Zero's eyes turned wild again and he stared at Harpuia.

"Harpuia, you killed so many reploids. Hundreds of reploids were retired because of you." He said quietly.

"Zero, that was before. I was wrong but I see that now..." He never got to finish because Zero burst into a red flame and shot at him.

"It's time to pay Harpuia! I'll kill you and then I'll destroy Neo-Arcadia! The humans mistreated reploids for too long!" Zero shouted.

"Zero stop, what are you doing? You are talking just like Elpizo!" Harpuia yelled as he narrowly avoided Zero's saber.

"Protect your precious humans before I'll get there?" Zero said calmly.

"Zero! Fight the You know that the chip had taken over me already so why don't you run away and chip Zero. I know you can do it, it's me after all Harpuia!" Harpuia tried to encourage Zero to fight the chip.

"It won't work Harpuia, whoever made this chip was too smart." Zero suddenly said.

"The more Zero resists the stronger the chip will become." Zero said, using his name in third person was the obvious sign of being controlled by the chip.

Harpuia said nothing and looked at Zero.

"Zero, please." He said, "If you can hear me you have to fight the chip or I'm afraid that I won't have any choice but to make sure you will be destroyed." Harpuia said and slowly drew a buster.

"And how do you plan to do that?" Zero asked with a malicious smile.

"I know exactly where the chip is, if I shoot that area you will self-destruct. It won't matter now because we're out in the desert. But unless you'll stop I'm afraid I won't have a choice." Harpuia aimed the buster and charged it, "So what do you say?" he asked.

"I say no, you'd die too. And even if I'm dead the executioners will destroy Neo-Arcadia, without any guardians it should be a cinch." Zero said coldly.

"You agreed to become a guardian, to defend all of the humans and reploids in Neo-Arcadia. That was a decision you cannot change! You will not destroy Neo-Arcadia or I will have to destroy you." Harpuia said fiercely.

"Then go ahead, shoot! I don't mind, if I die than Neo-Arcadia will too and you know that." Harpuia landed in front of Zero and lowered his buster.

Zero looked at him curiously but surprisingly Harpuia punched him in the face.

"Snap out of it." He said, "This is not the Zero I know, the Zero I know would fight the chip. He would do anything he could to protect Neo-Arcadia."

At the sounds of those words the flame around Zero started fading into nothingness.

"I'm sorry Harpuia." Zero said and sat down on the sand.

"This chip, it's causing so much trouble..." Zero said, as he drew a circle in the sand with his finger.

"Don't worry Zero, I have our top men working on it. Once we find a way to deactivate that chip or to keep it dormant, you'll be fine." Harpuia reassured Zero.

"You're right, I have to put myself together! But I've had it; I'm going to that stronghold by myself. You should stay inside Neo-Arcadia, I will go there and make sure that those executioners won't trouble us anymore." Zero said.

"I'll tell the operators to transfer you to the entrance then." Harpuia said and talked into his comm. with a wave of goodbye Zero vanished in a flash and reappeared in front of a stronghold, he recognized this place. He had been here once. It was a lab. It was destroyed once but mavericks that fought each other to the death rebuilt it.

He remembered coming here for the second time, seeing the place full of maverick bodies.

He walked slowly and entered inside, there was nothing the place was just walls and floors; there was no furniture or equipment.

Zero kept walking and searched around the place, he found a large room filled with reploid parts. There were torn bits of clothing everywhere, all of them olive green.

He stepped into the room and the door behind him shut.

"Zero." A voice behind him said.

Zero turned around to look at Vulture his eyes menacing.

"You killed Camazotz." Vulture said,

"Listen, I wasn't controlling myself. I have this darn chip and I..." Zero started but was interrupted by Vulture's voice.

"Silence pathetic guardian! You have destroyed him when he begged you to spare him! He had only asked for a second chance, he was even willing to leave us executioners!" Vulture shouted.

"Listen, I had no control over myself." Zero said.

"You know that this place wasn't destroyed by Maverick internal wars? Do you know who killed all of those mavericks? Me." Vulture said his eyes narrowing.

"I don't care if you killed a thousand Mavericks. Now I warn you, give in or I will destroy you. You killed Fefnir." Snapped Zero.

"An eye for an eye." Vulture said proudly.

"I see that you only want to fight." Zero said, "The look in your eyes leaves no doubt."

"Let's get to it then." Vulture said and drew his double-edged beam saber.

"Prepare to be retired." Zero said and drew his Z-saber.

They stared each other in the eyes and stood their grounds. Waiting for the opponent to move.

Who would win? The almighty Zero or the deadly Vulture? You'll see next chapter...

**To be continued...**

Author notes: This chapter is intentionally short, seeing as the next one would be a large battle sequence.


	18. Vulture

Author notes: To the anonymous reviewer sleepyhead, I suggest you should stop reviewing other peoples' stories and tell them they can't spell if you can't spell too. "This are one awesome fic" How can you tell me my spelling is sub par when you yourself can't write properly? Besides, there are very few if at all typing mistakes. 

And where is there i33tn3s as you say? I strongly that you should shut up

-Cursor

**Chapter 18: Vulture**

Vulture and Zero stared into each other's eyes and slowly moved in a circle while still facing each other.

Vulture's double-edged beam saber shun in green and so did Zero's Z-saber.

They studied each other, obviously waiting for the other to make the first move.

Zero decided to make it and dashed at Vulture, who jumped in the air above Zero; performing a complicated summersault and whirled around in the middle, thus landing behind Zero but still facing him.

Vulture then dashed with all of his speed at Zero and tried to slash upwards at him with the bottom blade of the beam saber.

Zero rolled forwards and turned around, then jumping at Vulture he tried to stab Vulture from the air but Vulture blocked it with the upper blade of his beam saber.

Vulture threw Zero to the side and managed to slice Zero's arm with his lower blade.

Zero's wrist was bleeding but Zero did not mind, he jumped backwards and kicked off the wall; slamming into Vulture shoulder first, throwing him to the ground.

Zero tried to stab Vulture while he was down, but Vulture used his wing jetpacks to slip before Zero managed to hit him.

Vulture rolled backwards to his feet and quickly launched an onslaught on Zero, forcing him to wear himself out while trying to block both of his blades.

Zero blocked all of the blows successfully, and evaded the next by using Thoth's technique and stopping time for a second so he could get far enough to sling the chain rod at Vulture.

Vulture ducked and the chain rod passed him and stuck to the wall behind him.

Vulture turned his head to it and then turned back to Zero, who used his distraction and dash-kicked him in the face.

Vulture slumped backwards from the force of the kick but then he rolled backwards and while doing so he kicked Zero's back.

Zero stumbled into the wall and as Vulture stood up, Zero back kicked him in the chest.

Vulture took a step backwards in order to balance himself.

He tried to slash at Zero with his double-edged beam saber but missed as Zero moved aside, avoiding the blades.

Zero then tried to slash him with the Z-saber but Vulture jumped in the air, flapping his wings once and hailing razor sharp metal feathers that came with his latest upgrade.

Zero crossed his hands in front of his face to protect himself and his hands were badly damaged and pierced, but Zero just broke off all of the feathers by knocking his arms from the elbows and up together forcefully.

Vulture started twirling his double-edged beam saber and propelled it directly at Zero.

Zero didn't know what to do, the rotating beam saber blocked every possible escape route so Zero decided to try a desperate move, he raised his shield boomerang and started to charge it.

The saber was almost upon him when he finished charging, he threw the shield boomerang straight at the hilt of the beam saber and knocked it right back at Vulture, who caught it with one hand.

Zero didn't wait for Vulture to recover from the surprise and quickly shot at him with his buster.

Vulture was hit from the bullets but his armor was too powerful for them to actually cause any harm.

Vulture descended and kicked Zero in the face, sending him flying across the room and into the wall.

The corner of Zero's mouth started bleeding, and he slwoly stood up.

He rose up again and shot the metallic feathers at Zero again.

Zero dodged his attack but some feathers slashed his side.

Vulture then descended rapidly and as he landed on the floor he used his jetpacks to propel him forwards, stretching his hands in front of him he pushed Zero through the metal wall with a metallic screech and through about a dozen more before the two exited the complex, at that point Vulture stopped at once letting Zero soar backwards and land on the desert sand.

"Is that all you've got?" He mocked Zero, his voice full of hatred.

"You are weaker than I thought, how on earth did you defeat Harpuia?" Zero asked with a smile as he stood up.

Vulture raised an eyebrow, he obviously had the upper hand and was throwing Zero like a rag doll but still Zero could say something like that? Vulture decided he wasn't going to play with him anymore; he's in for a world of pain.

Vulture sped up to him and kicked his torso, throwing him a few feet away.

Zero landed on the sand, he intentionally let Vulture hurt him so that the frenzy chip would take over.

Zero was now full of his own blood, Vulture himself was not even injured.

Vulture looked at Zero as he stood up and then he drew his double-edged beam saber again.

"Die fool!" Vulture yelled as he charged towards Zero, about to slice him in half.

He stopped dead in his tracks and blinked, how was it possible? There were two Zeros now staring at him.

"But...?" Vulture said and shook his head strongly. "Poseidon's technique." He muttered and flapped his wings twice, metallic feathers flew from his wings, that with each feather attack became more and more bat-like.

The feather hit the two Zeros but only injured one, as Vulture noted. Vulture charged at the real Zero and tried a hook to the face.

Zero side stepped and tripped Vulture, who fell headfirst into the sand.

Vulture rolled forwards after he landed and jumped into the air.

He swooped down and picked up Zero, flying higher and higher before descending rapidly towards the desert.

When he was less than eight feet before colliding with the ground, Vulture released Zero and Zero crashed into the ground.

"You little maggot. You got what you deserved." Vulture said as he floated in the air.

He heard a loud scream from downstairs and saw a large red flame zooming straight at him.

He narrowly dodged the crimson flame, quickly moving sideways to avoid its trajectory.

The flame did not discourage, it pursued him and he had to dodge it frantically.

He decided it would be safer to land on the ground but to his surprise the scarlet blaze landed in front of him and stood still.

"Zero?" Vulture asked.

"Not anymore." Zero's voice replied as the flame shot at him at such a speed that it was almost impossible to avoid.

Vulture jumped to the air but the flame came right after him, catching him unprepared Zero delivered a vicious uppercut and then he rose above Vulture and double fisted him into the ground.

Vulture crashed into the sand and felt his body aching.

"That's it, you think you're so powerful but I'll show you power!" Vulture said and shot at Zero, only to receive a hook to the face. The blow was so powerful that it broke the front part of Vulture's helmet.

Zero finally gazed upon the beautiful face of the reploid; it was flawless and gorgeous.

Zero's anger faded almost immediately, he stared at Vulture and asked him,

"Why would you want to conceal your face?"

"You know nothing! When I was created, there was an explosion they became deformed. I have asked for shelter but no one would give it to me because of my hideous face. I dared not look at them, it seems that they repaired themselves over time but I couldn't bring myself to look at it." Vulture said sorrowfully.

"You will pay for this Zero. I swear I will destroy you and the guardians. For seeing my face you will pay the ultimate price. I will kill you!" Vulture said and transferred away.

Zero stared for a second where Vulture was and then started to walk towards Neo-Arcadia, since his comm. was damaged by Vulture's feather attack.

**To be continued...**


	19. A protege

Author notes: First thing, I'm not writing in lines anymore its fan fiction that makes it lines, second thing there are more chapters to this thing than you might think. I have already decided how many chapters to dedicate to Zero and Leviathan and how many chapters to develop the characters so don't worry about it.

Also, I have taken a time-out for a while. I decided to rest a bit from now on I'm going to update it once in a while you see, when you upload daily and you suddenly lose your inspiration there is the pressure of completing the chapter, so I decided it would be best to remove this stress.

Thank you for reviewing y'all!

-Cursor

**Chapter 19: A protégé**

**The Neo-Arcadian core, infirmary/maintenance room...**

Zero was sitting next to Leviathan, filling her with fluids wasn't as easy as it sounded.

It was something like an infusion, straight into the fluid conductor inside her hand from a large bag of fluids.

"It might take a while, a day or so." Said one of the nurses to Zero, nurses were female assistants to the doctors/maintenance reploids. They have to take extensive medical courses and tests before they are qualified to become nurses. If they wish they can take another six years course to become a fully-fledged doctor. Or alternatively they can become doctors without going through the nurse training.

That is the same to male reploids, with the exception of being able to become nurses. Neo-Arcadian rules forbid male nurses, whether if they are in a civilian clinic or a medical center.

"Oh hang on, you're Zero aren't you?" The nurse asked.

"What about it?" Zero said rudely and without moving his head turned his eyes to her.

"Oh, nothing err... sir I was just wondering, sorry." The nurse blushed and turned to walk away.

"I'm sorry, I was rude yes I am Zero." Zero said apologetically.

"Oh, my name is Belle. I heard a lot about you, I'm glad you're on our side now. From what I've seen from the reploids you've sent in here I'm glad we don't have you as an enemy anymore." Belle said and left.

Leviathan stirred, it happened occasionally. As the fluids were injected into her the body would react every twenty minutes, to check if there are enough fluids to re-activate.

He was with her for the rest of the day since he returned; Harpuia came in earlier and asked Zero to meet him at nineteen hundred hours in the training chamber. That time was drawing near; it was eighteen forty-nine and the skies have already darkened which Zero could see through the transparent window near him.

"Well, I guess I have to go for now. I'll be back soon though so don't worry." Zero said, taking Leviathan's still hand and holding it in his.

He took off and left towards the training chamber, where Harpuia had asked him to meet.

He took a left turn at a corridor and went down another one; the training room's door was in front of him.

He knocked on the door before entering, to find a room full of different reploids in all shapes and sizes, varying from gigantic Mutos reploids to tiny human-like soldiers.

"What's all of this?" Zero asked Harpuia who was standing in front of all of the reploids.

"Well Zero, since you're now a guardian you get to choose a protégé to train and to work with as a partner, I have Aztec Falcon here..." Harpuia gestured at Aztec Falcon, who Zero didn't notice and continued, "Fefnir had Fenrir Hahira." Harpuia gestured at Fenrir, who stood silently near Falcon.

"He's really miserable now that Fefnir's gone." Harpuia said and looked apprehensively at Fenrir.

"Wait wasn't he with Fefnir?" Zero asked.

"No, only X's guard was sent to the assault. Such a great waste of reploid lives." He said and continued his explanation.

"And Leviathan currently doesn't have anyone for the moment, since there were not much aqua-reploids or ice-based reploids in the last recruit shipment. I have assembled some of our top reploids, as well as some of our worst for you to choose. Go talk to them all, don't choose by appearance for example you see that humanoid over there?" He pointed at a human-like reploid that looked completely ordinary.

"That's Nathan, he can take on most of the Mutos reploids in the room. So talk to each of them and choose carefully, remember you only get one. Until he or she dies.

Zero started from the human-like reploids, first approaching a nervous small reploid.

"What's your name?" He asked, and the nervous reploid gave a yelp. He didn't realize Zero was approaching him.

"Umm... it's Jeff sir... I umm... yes Jeff." The nervous reploid said.

"Any combat experience?" Zero asked.

"No err... I mean no sir..." The reploid said.

"Any skills?" Zero started to wander what this reploid was doing there.

"Umm... I'm uhh... I'm pretty good at cleaning sir." Zero smacked his forehead and looked at Harpuia, he seemed pretty amused by this.

"Very funny Harpuia." Zero snapped.

"Okay all of the cleaners back to work." Harpuia said, all of the human-like reploids but Nathan left the room confused.

Zero walked over to Nathan.

"What weapons are you good with?" Zero asked.

"Buster, buster rifle, buster cannon. Just give me a buster and I'm set." Nathan said.

"Any useful skills?" Zero asked raising an eyebrow.

"I'm a good climber, so I can climb stuff like trees or mountains to scout ahead. And alert from enemies sir." Nathan said and muttered "Bet you can't do that." He looked shocked when he saw that Zero heard him.

"Then go become a scout. If you're so good at it and get out of my sight."

Nathan left, disappointed.

Zero walked over to a small rat-like Mutos-reploid.

"Name?"

"Raton sir." The reploid said.

"Combat skills?"

"I'm small so I don't get hurt often, I'm good with a buster but not with anything too heavy."

"On your way then." Zero sent him away.

Zero passed and interviewed any reploid; he was surprised as most of them were useless but had attributes like strength or quickness.

He finally reached the last reploid, a Mutos resembling a Doberman with a steel colored lower jaw.

The reploid had regular hand with large and sharp fingernails.

The reploid's eyes were green and his body color (except for the lower jaw) was dark brown, his ears black.

His body torso-down was humanoid, with an exception in the color.

He wore a black suit, silver buttons decorated it and it had two long sleeves with silver cuffs.

His pants were the same as his shirt; to his right leg was a buster holster and on his lower left ankle's side he had a combat knife.

"What's your name?" Zero asked curiously as this reploid was much different than the others. He was roughly Zero's size without the ears.

"My name is Hubershnicdt." The Doberman said with a heavy German accent.

"Und I vas nominatid for the leatership of the X guard, I got to finals but lost to big hyena reploid because of technical difficulties. My jaw was malfunctioning and it vas causing me great pain so I could not beat that reploid. Otervise you would have been looking at the leater of the X guard." Hubershnicdt explained.

"I see, well then I suppose you have exceptional combat skills." Zero said.

"Yes, I am able to perform many moves and to fight with many veapons. I can takedown whole platoon myself. I never forgive hyena reploid for beating me so I replaced jaw with better one. So malfunction will not occur again." Hubershnicdt said and pointed to his steel jaw.

"What weapons can you fight with?" Zero inquired.

"Any, any veapon familiar to our armies that is. I know how to use beam sabers and busters. I know how to fight with long-range sniper weapons and close range buster rifles. I can fight with cannons and other beam veapons as well. I am especially good at guarding fortresses and fighting indoors." Hubershnicdt explained.

"When was your last battle outside training?" Zero asked as he noticed the action-craving stare in Hubershnicdt's eyes.

"My last battle was long ago with resistance. They trying to steal special supplies but I defeated all of them." Hubershnicdt said.

"I pick this one!" Zero yelled to Harpuia, who was standing and conversing with Falcon.

"Really? You mean it? I fight again?" Hubershnicdt asked excitedly.

"Yes, and I'm going to train you right now so wait here." Zero said and walked over to Harpuia.

"Falcon." He nodded and Falcon nodded back.

"So you chose Hubershnicdt? A good choice, he was one of the best in his time. A shame about his jaw but Copy X, he didn't want him. He assigned him to guard duty of no importance." Harpuia said, he was leaning against the wall his arms were crossed on his chest.

"Really? How can the runner up for the leading role of his guard be assigned to become a simple guard?" Zero also crossed his hands on his chest as he asked.

"Copy X said he didn't want to have old broken 'dinosaurs' he called it, in his army." Harpuia shrugged.

"Well what about me Harpuia? Am I a dinosaur?" Zero smiled.

"I'm going to use my right to remain silent for this one." Harpuia smirked.

"Well you'd better get to the observation room then. I want to see what this guy's all about." Zero said and shooed the out of the room.

"Right then." He said, "Time to see what you've got."

Hubershnicdt grinned, baring his razor sharp teeth.

"I am ready." He said.

"Combat simulator level one please." Zero said loudly.

The combat simulator would produce holographic images of units in order to train the guardians or the military reploids.

It had many levels, each producing a different stronger unit.

The five levels before the last one were Fefnir, Leviathan, Phantom, Harpuia and Copy X and the last level was Zero himself. No one had beaten Zero or Copy X's levels yet, including the guardians. Zero didn't have time to use the combat simulator or otherwise he would have beaten all of the levels.

Hubershnicdt prepared for battle and in front of him appeared a Pantheon guardian.

Hubershnicdt pounced and brutally ripped the hand with the club and then crushed the Pantheon's head with it.

The Pantheon guardian disappeared and the computer announced, "Level one cleared."

"Go on computer." Zero said, and a Pantheon hunter appeared.

The hunter barely raised his buster before Hubershnicdt ripped its head off the shoulders.

The hunter disappeared and the computer announced, "Moving to level three."

A Pantheon crawler appeared, but as he tried to pounce Hubershnicdt drew his buster amazingly fast and shot it straight in the oval red eye.

"Moving to level 4" Now a stronger unit appeared, a mechaniloid with a chain ball.

The weak spot for this mechaniloid was the bottom; Hubershnicdt would have to hit the mechaniloid in the head, and while the mechaniloid's base is exposed he should strike it.

Hubershnicdt dodged the chain ball without difficulty and with a sprint he jumped and double-kicked the mechaniloid's head with his boots and then did a backwards somersault, landing in front of the mechaniloid.

It took him only one more second to destroy the base of the mechaniloid with his buster.

"Good, level 12 computer." Zero said, and now a reploid very familiar to him appeared, Maha Ganeshariff.

The gigantic elephant reploid rolled into a ball and spin-dashed at Hubershnicdt, who jumped out of the way and quickly shot three times at the elephant, who returned to his normal state.

The elephant was knocked back a bit by the shots and yet again rolled to a ball but this time he sent his trunk upwards and grabbed the ceiling.

He lifted himself in the air and swung himself at Hubershnicdt, who dashed underneath to avoid it.

Hubershnicdt moved quickly and jumped drawing his combat knife, and slicing the trunk with it.

The elephant's heavy body crashed on the floor and he got back to his original state.

Hubershnicdt dashed at him and with a quick slash, severed his arm.

Without giving his opponent any time to recover Hubershnicdt shot him with his buster again, and the elephant exploded in a brilliant blast.

Next up was Anubis Necromansess the third, which also wasn't a match for the experienced and trained veteran.

After that it was Blizzarak, who was also defeated easily. Zero, after studying the technique Hubershnicdt used realized he changed it all of the time, to keep the computer guessing what he will do next.

Then he reached the Rainbow Devil, who he also defeated but with a bit of difficulty.

To Zero's surprise Hubershnicdt was doing great, he managed to beat Fefnir and Leviathan but then moved on to Phantom.

Phantom made several copies of himself but couldn't fool Hubershnicdt, who used his nose to sniff out the real him and sliced him with his combat knife.

Zero wondered, the combat knife had to be made of some sort of special metal to be able to cut through metallic objects like that.

Phantom tried to slash at him with his sword but Hubershnicdt jumped in the air and landed on Phantom's head.

Phantom collapsed to the ground and was replaced by Harpuia, this battle however was very difficult for Hubershnicdt. He tried his best but couldn't beat him.

"All right that's enough computer." Zero said.

"Do you realize that you are stronger than three of the guardians?" Zero asked.

"Ja, I do Mr. Zero but Harpuia is too much for me. I need more training."

"Do remember, Zero that we haven't updated that thing since you defeated Copy X. We have grown in power." Harpuia said as he and Falcon entered the room, Fenrir apparently left.

"Undoubtedly so, but still he is very strong and I just can't believe that Copy X rejected someone this powerful." Zero said.

"Copy X's motives were always his own." Harpuia replied.

"Well, Hubershnicdt." Zero said, "I'll call you Hub, for short because it is a bit hard to properly pronounce your name." Zero suggested.

"I have no objections master Zero." Hub said.

"Well Hub, I'll meet you tomorrow here for another training session. I'll show you some moves and I'll teach you some of the things I know." Zero explained.

"Ja master Zero, goodbye if you ever need me I vill leave my comm. freqvency at your door." Hub saluted and left the training room.

"Well I'll see you tomorrow Harpuia, goodbye Falcon." Zero said and left the training room towards his quarters.

**To be continued...**

Author notes: The spelling errors when Hubershnicdt speaks are intentional, because he has a heavy German accent and he doesn't speak English well, or Japanese.

Any other spelling errors should be immediately reported to me so I can fix them.

Thank you all, keep reviewing and goodbye.


	20. Distress signal

**Chapter 20:**

"Zero!" the sleeping reploid heard the muffled cry and some pounds on his door.

"Zero open the door or I'll open it!" Zero stirred so violently he fell out of his bed.

"Coming!" he said through his blanket.

"Hurry up already!" the pounding continued.

"Just a second!" He sleepily tried to remove the blanket from himself but failed.

He tried to stand up but slipped and fell,

"Ow..." he groaned and finally managed to remove his blanket from himself.

"I'm still waiting!" The voice said.

"I said just a second!" Zero yelled and summoned his armor.

"What is it?!" Zero said angrily as he opened the door but his jaw dropped when he saw Leviathan standing in front of him.

"Leviathan! You're okay!" he exclaimed and hugged her.

"Did you have any doubts?" She beamed at him.

"No, but I'm really happy to see you standing again." Zero said with a wide smile.

"Well, but I'm afraid we're going to have to come clean. Harpuia and Fefnir must be suspecting something by now..." Leviathan said and raised an eyebrow when she saw Zero's face.

"Fairy, I'm afraid that Fefnir is..." He sighed, "Deceased..."

Leviathan's face turned almost as white as it was when Camazotz sucked the blood out of her.

"I... No, not Fefnir! You have to be kidding me... How...?" She stuttered.

"Harpuia said that someone, activated the fleet's self destruct sequence altogether, causing the entire aerial fleet of Neo-Arcadia to explode and very unfortunately Fefnir was aboard one of the transports..." Zero explained sorrowfully.

Leviathan clapped her hand over her mouth in shock.

"The entire fleet? How did they...? It would have taken the best hackers in the world... Computer geniuses! I can't think of any way it could be done..." Leviathan spurted.

"Those executioners cost Neo-Arcadia a lot but I fought one of them and beat him. They are no match for my f... for us." Zero said quickly.

"What is it?" Leviathan asked suspiciously.

"I... it's nothing really. We, we need to talk to Harpuia." Zero hurried out of the room.

"Oh by the way, Hubershnicdt came by a minute ago and wanted me to give you his comm. frequency so here you go." She gave him the note.

"Why would he want you to have his comm. frequency by the way?" She asked as the two marched along the hallway.

"He's my protégé." Zero answered briefly.

"So you have a protégé eh? Which reminds me, what about poor Fenrir Hahira? Did he go down with Fefnir...? Poor Fefnir." She said sadly a tear lingering in her eye before slowly sliding on her smooth artificial skin.

"No, he's alive but he's pretty sad. Poor guy." Zero said as he was about to open the door to the mission room but Harpuia already did from the other side.

"Harpuia, I've been looking for you." Zero said.

"Zero come in, ah Leviathan I'm glad to see you again." Harpuia said.

"Actually we'd like to talk with you alone for a second..." Zero said, glancing at the room full of reploids behind Harpuia.

"Sure, let's go over to the overlook tower." Harpuia said and led them to the elevator.

The overlook tower was a secluded spot that only the highest-ranking Neo-Arcadians had access to. It was practically at the top of the Neo-Arcadian tower; from up there all of Neo-Arcadia could be seen in all of its glory.

The elevator went on and on for what seemed like minutes until they arrived at the top.

Zero and Leviathan sat at the table and Harpuia went to get an energy drink. A drink made of energy crystals. The drink was somewhat like coffee for reploids.

Harpuia sipped from the can and sat down.

"So, what is it?" he asked looking at the two." Zero and Leviathan looked at each other and Harpuia raised an eyebrow.

"Two weeks before Zero joined us he and I met in a place where there were sightings of the dark elf. And well, we have been together since. I mean, all of those missions I told you about weren't really missions..." Harpuia spit out his energy drink.

"What?! Why haven't you told me about any of this? Zero? Leviathan?" He looked at them furiously.

"That's exactly why." Leviathan crossed her arms over her chest, "We knew you'd react like this."

"Leviathan you know we don't have time for all of those things. Especially now with the executioners crisis!" Harpuia said.

"Well I don't really think that's any of your business! We just wanted to tell you because we thought you'd like to know!" Leviathan shouted and stood up.

"Oh yeah? You couldn't have chosen a better time! Fefnir is dead, the entire Neo-Arcadian fleet is crushed and those executioners are out there ready to kill us!" Harpuia yelled.

"I have to go to the training room, I told Hub I'd meet him there so see you." Zero lied and dashed off towards the elevator, leaving Harpuia and Leviathan shouting at each other behind him.

He went down the elevator; it seemed to be much faster now.

He reached the training room's floor and exited the elevator.

He raised his comm. and typed the frequency; there was a pause and some static before Hub's voice answered.

"Hello?" The voice inquired.

"Hub, it's me Zero. Come meet me in the training room, time for your training session." Zero said to his comm.

"Ja, I shall be right there!" Hubershnicdt said.

Zero walked down the corridor towards the training room and turned a right at a corridor.

Surprisingly as he turned he saw Hubershnicdt leaning against the wall of the training room as if he was waiting there.

Zero asked him about that and he simply answered:

"Guards quarters are right there." And pointed down the corridor.

The two entered the training room and started the training session.

**At the Executioners' stronghold...**

"I'll show him..." Vulture muttered, an insane spark in his eye as he seared the black metal plate back to the front of his helmet.

His short jet-black hair was very untidy now, and Vulture was still filthy from the fight. Obsessed with defeating Zero he neglected himself in favor of his armor.

"I'll kill him... he doesn't know who I am..." He said as he took out a laser pen and colored the searing marks black so they wouldn't be spotted.

"Umm... Vulture?" Whirlpool asked hesitantly and Vulture hurriedly put on his helmet.

"Yeah?" he asked and turned around.

"I'm going to my mission now so I'll see you soon." She said.

"Take care." Vulture said, "Don't let him beat you."

"I won't, bye for now." She said and left Vulture alone.

Vulture looked at his hands, the frail hands, the hands that failed him.

"No. I will show him the power of an executioner... I will retire him! And I will stop at nothing to do so!" Vulture laughed maniacally.

"Vulture, I'm afraid you are going to have to wait a while." Vulture heard the all too familiar voice of Bullion.

"What do you want?" Vulture asked, a dangerous spark in his cold green eyes.

"Remember, the master ordered you to stay put until..." Bullion started.

"To hell with the master's orders!" Vulture yelled defiantly.

"I will kill Zero, even if it will cost me my life." Vulture said with an eerily calm voice and put on his helmet.

"And no one, not you Bullion, not even the master will stop me." He dashed forwards and rammed Bullion out of the way.

Bullion jumped quickly to his feet and was about to give chase when a hand held his shoulder.

"Let him go," Said Daemon, "there is a lot of rage in that one. I think you should leave him be for now."

Bullion sighed and removed his helmet, his long blond hair gently sliding down to his torso.

"Don't worry," Daemon said, "Soon we will destroy Zero and Neo-Arcadia and then we will have no worries."

Bullion looked at Daemon for a second and said nothing, then after a silent moment he spoke, "I understand his frustration. I wish him good luck in his quest."

**At Neo-Arcadia's core a few hours later...**

"So, you understand now? If you use this technique it will be harder for enemies to hit you with any ranged weapon." Zero finished the training session with Hubershnicdt.

"Ja, you are masterful master Zero. You are a great varrior and a teacher I am honored to serving you." Hubershnicdt said bowing very low in front of Zero.

"I have a question Hub, this knife you have..." Zero started.

"The knife? It vas made by my creator, a great scientist he vas. He explained to me once how this knife is vorking he said there are tiny nano-bots on the surface of it, sharpening it and repairing it, making it indestructible as vell as poverful. They also dispense plasma as the blade collides forcefully, thus making the veapon very effective." Hub explained shortly to Zero, holding up the knife.

"I see, so it is as effective as a beam saber?" Zero asked, carefully studying the weapon.

"It is old technology, predates saber technology I believe. But I keep it as a souvenir, as it was passed from generation to generation in my creator's family." Hub said, staring lovingly at the blade.

"Okay, that's all for today. I'll see you tomorrow." Zero said and the two left, Hub leaving towards the guard quarters and Zero towards his own.

About halfway down the corridor his comm. ringed,

"Zero, get over to the mission room." Leviathan's voice was heard and he changed his direction, heading towards the mission room instead of his quarters.

He reached the mission room to see two guardians with their back to each other and their arms crossed on their chest.

"What is going on?" Zero asked, raising an eyebrow.

"We received a distress signal from a cargo vessel a few minutes ago." Harpuia said,

"Okay let's go! You have the location of the vessel right?" Zero said.

"I'm not coming." Harpuia said bluntly, and Leviathan looked as if she received a slap to the face.

"Excuse me?" Zero asked, completely flabbergasted.

"You heard me, I'm not coming. Not with that hag." He said quietly to Leviathan so the operators wouldn't hear him.

"Why you..." Leviathan started moving towards him.

"Oh I see, say you two I've got an idea! Why don't we all play hide and seek?" Zero smirked.

The two blinked at him angrily, "If you want to act like children there is no room for you as the guardians." Zero said loudly, ignoring the stares of the operators.

"Get back to work!" Harpuia bellowed since he did notice their stares.

"Let's just go Leviathan, if he won't come that's his problem." Zero said.

"That's right, besides I thought you two might want some time for yourselves..." As soon as Harpuia had said that there was a loud crack as Leviathan slapped him across the face.

"Transfer us now!" She yelled angrily and she and Zero both disappeared in a blinding flash of white.

Harpuia was stunned; he held his hand to where Leviathan had hit it.

He heard a chuckle behind him ant turned around to see a cleaner. He grabbed the cleaner by the collar.

"You're fired!" he yelled at him, the cleaner wasn't scared and he wasn't nervous at all. He just grinned back and said, "No Harpuia you are." And with that Daemon summoned his armor and punched Harpuia in the face, causing him to lose his balance and fall.

"You!" Harpuia said, and suddenly looked around realizing that many reploids were in danger.

"Get out of here now! Call Falcon and Fenrir and Hubershnicdt here at once!" Harpuia shouted as he narrowly avoided a smashing kick to his stomach.

There was a large commotion and all of the reploids exited the room, leaving Harpuia alone against the threat.

**Meanwhile in an abandoned cargo vessel in the ocean...**

"Can you believe that Harpuia! Humph, the idiot. Said that I'm being childish." She then imitated Harpuia's voice which was pretty good, "Leviathan you know we are not allowed... Executioners are about to kill us." She returned to her normal melodic voice. "I checked, and if we were dating before you became a guardian it's okay to keep dating afterwards. That overprotective creep! Who does he think I am, his sister? Bah!" Poor Zero had to endure Leviathan's complaints. That was probably the only thing about her he really couldn't stand. But he simply shrugged it off and started exploring the ship with her.

**To be continued...**


	21. Whirlpool and Daemon

**Chapter 21: Whirlpool and Daemon**

"Well, well… Harpuia, the legendary emerald blur. I have been waiting a long time for this." Said Daemon, grim satisfaction in his voice.

Harpuia growled at him and moved to draw his sabers.

"I think that will be of no use, what chance do you have against an executioner?" Daemon asked as he paced around the room.

"I have nothing to worry about, soon reinforcements will come." Harpuia muttered.

"Yes, yes… but that will only help you if you will survive to greet them." Daemon smiled and Harpuia winced, he never saw a scarier smile in his life.

"We have infiltrated your core so many times I am beginning to wonder if it really is protected at all." Daemon taunted, staring around the room at the lit monitors.

Harpuia decided to seize the opportunity and charged with a battle cry.

Daemon, almost too quickly, turned around and transformed his arm to the chain ball. He then threw it straight at Harpuia, hitting dead on and piercing some parts in his body.

Harpuia was knocked backwards and slid on the floor, leaning on it with one hand to slow himself down.

"I am disappointed Harpuia, if that is everything you can provide I might as well kill you now…" Daemon muttered.

"I do not think so!" Said Aztec Falcon as he, Fenrir Hahira and Hubershnicdt rushed into the room.

"Well now, this might be more fun than I thought…" Daemon smiled again.

Aztec Falcon leaped into the air as Fenrir and Hub charged forwards.

Daemon side stepped to avoid a slash from Fenrir and ducked below a swing from Hub with great speed. He punched Hub in the ribs and moved up with an uppercut to the chin, knocking Hub backwards.

Aztec Falcon launched three electrical beams at Daemon but the monster jumped in the air and punched Falcon's beak, throwing him to the ground next to Harpuia.

Daemon transformed his arm to the chain ball again and slung it at Fenrir, who jumped backwards to avoid it.

Daemon again transformed his arm back and jumped over Fenrir, kicking him in the back of the head and sending him head first to the floor.

Hub in the meanwhile recovered and shot at Daemon with his buster, Daemon avoided the shots without effort by jumping, rolling and at last a somersault over Hub, Daemon landed behind him and Hub drew his knife quickly and turned while holding out his arm, in order to slash Daemon while turning.

Daemon caught Hub's arm and twisted it, causing the Doberman to groan in agony and then Daemon grabbed the back of Hub's head and crashed it into his knee.

Hub yelped in pain as Daemon lifted him in the air and threw him at Falcon, both collapsing in a heap on the floor.

"I am very disappointed!" Daemon declared, catching a fist Harpuia sent to him and punching Harpuia on the side of the helmet sending him straight into a wall.

"Come on, there are four of you and one of me! At least scratch my armor or something." Daemon laughed maliciously.

Hub tried to stand up but Daemon dashed towards him and kicked his abdomen so hard that he soared straight up to the ceiling, crashed into it and fell back on Falcon unconscious.

Falcon grunted and tried to push Hub away from him so he could stand up but in vain as Daemon kicked his face and knocked him out.

Fenrir stood up and charged at Daemon with a roar, both claws extended.

Daemon simply moved sideways and tripped Fenrir with his leg, causing him to lose balance.

As Fenrir was about to fall Daemon launched a hammer kick to his back, making him crash with quadruple force into the floor.

The four were bloody and hurt even though the battle lasted less than ten minutes.

Harpuia was now the only one still conscious; looking up at Daemon he coughed out some blood.

Daemon went over to a nearby monitor and started typing, inserting a data disc to the computer and extracting it a few seconds later. He then went over to Harpuia.

Daemon crouched and lifted Harpuia's eyelids a bit, Harpuia couldn't as much as move his finger, not to mention trying to resist.

"Well Harpuia, I must say I'm very disappointed. I expected a better fight. I guess I'll have to torch the place."

He went over to Hub's unconscious body and kicked it into a wall, picking up his buster.

He charged it up and shot great balls of flame everywhere, completely destroying the mission room.

"Alert, fire detected at mission room. Activating counter measures." Said the voice of the fire alarm and water poured from the ceiling; extinguishing the fire.

"See you later." Daemon said and transferred away.

**Meanwhile at the cargo vessel…**

"Operator? Come in operator." Leviathan said furiously to her comm.

"There is nothing here Fairy, I suspect foul play. And the fact that the operators aren't responding worries me. I suspect someone wanted to keep us away from the base." Zero said, looking around the vast cargo hold.

Suddenly he heard slow, rhythmic clapping. He turned to see a female reploid with ocean blue shark-like armor.

"Good job Zero! You're smarter than I thought." She smiled at him and Leviathan looked livid.

"You'll take care of Leviathan and I'll take Zero." Said a voice behind them.

They turned around to see Vulture; Whirlpool was completely surprised but hid it from Zero and Leviathan.

"Got it." She said and summoned a harpoon.

Leviathan turned to her, gripping her own harpoon tightly.

"What do we do?" She asked from the corner of her mouth.

"We fight." Zero whispered.

Vulture activated his double-edged beam saber and glared at Zero.

Whirlpool smiled at Leviathan and leaned on her harpoon, her eyes moved constantly from Zero to Vulture.

"When I count to three…" Zero whispered, "We charge."

"One…" Leviathan prepared, "Two…" Zero prepared.

"Three!" Both executioners yelled and to the guardians' surprise they charged at them first, throwing them to opposite sides.

Whirlpool fought vigorously with Leviathan, using her harpoon as a spear and pole at the same time.

Vulture crouched below a slash from Zero and grabbed Zero's arm.

Vulture than rolled backwards, kicking Zero in the stomach and flipping him, causing him to fall on his back on the cold metal floor of the cargo bay.

Zero leapt to his feet and tried to use his chain rod at Vulture but the executioner jumped into the air and launched a flying kick to Zero's head, making him stagger backwards.

Meanwhile Leviathan and Whirlpool were sparring angrily, Leviathan was panting but Whirlpool was enjoying herself, laughing and playing with Leviathan.

She punched Leviathan in the face and jumped backwards to avoid being hit by Leviathan's harpoon.

She then feinted another punch but in the last second she twirled and kicked Leviathan in the side of the head and Leviathan fell sideways into a wooden crate, smashing it into splinters and wood pieces.

Zero and Vulture were now dueling with their swords, Vulture having an obvious advantage due to his double bladed variety.

It became harder for Zero to block Vulture's strikes, that and the fact that Zero started to become weary affected his combat ability.

Vulture's fighting style was very fast and Zero had to utilize all of his speed that consumed a lot of his power.

"It's time for vengeance!" Vulture declared.

"Don't count on it." Zero said through gritted teeth.

Zero jumped and in mid air he drew both his chain rod and his buster, charging both simultaneously.

He decided to utilize one of the techniques he learned from Fefnir, and he equipped the fire chip.

He released the chain rod exactly at Vulture and with the buster he shot at the ground near Vulture.

Vulture, who had not seen this tried to evade the chain rod and ended up running straight into the fiery shot Zero fired.

The explosion knocked Vulture backwards, sending him a few feet away, but Vulture did a mid-air roll and landed on his feet.

"I will kill you, no matter what!" Vulture said furiously and charged at Zero with a speed that would make a land chaser seem like a unicycle.

He punched Zero in the stomach, and from the sheer force of the speed Zero was thrown all the way to the other wall, smashing through metal and wooden crates as he soared.

Just a second later Zero heard an audible boom; Vulture had breached the sound barrier when he attacked him.

"Alright, that's it!"

Zero rolled in the air and landed on his feet, dashing towards Vulture in a burst of speed, knocking the executioner backwards.

He took a step backwards and ran into Leviathan's back.

"Leviathan, you should leave, you've got no chance against these guys." Zero muttered, looking at Vulture who strode towards him slowly.

"No! I'm not leaving you here!" Leviathan replied.

"Trust me Fairy, I'll be fine." Zero said and suddenly heard a girlish laugh from behind him.

"Oh, you use her first name, how cute!" Whirlpool laughed.

Vulture joined in and laughed with her, "I thought inter guardian relations were prohibited!" he said.

Leviathan went completely red, well maybe because she and Zero were engulfed in a red flame now.

"Uhh… Zero?" She asked turning around.

"Leave now!" Zero said, his pupils narrowing.

"What the…?" Leviathan asked.

"I said leave!" Zero yelled and Leviathan transferred away.

"Oh, so are you mad now or can you exert some control over this?" Vulture mocked him.

"Vulture I don't think you'd want to annoy him now…" Said Whirlpool in a concerned voice.

Vulture yelled a battle cry and dashed at Zero with his double bladed sword, slashing upwards and downwards and left and right without pause, but Zero just drew his Z-saber and blocked Vulture's attacks without difficulty.

"Good Zero! Much better, you might still have a chance now!" Vulture's eyes flickered as he talked.

Zero walked two steps backwards and launched a back kick straight into Whirlpool's chest, knocking her through three crates before she came to a halt.

"Alexia!" Vulture cried and was distracted, just enough time for Zero to head-butt him in the helmet, cracking it and sending Vulture to the floor.

"Not so confident now are we? Vulture, I have learned many times and from many enemies. Your strength cannot match my experience; after all I've been around for over a century.

Vulture used both of his hands and sprung up, slashing with his beam saber twice and while Zero blocked he jumped overhead and slashed Zero's back.

Zero fell to his knees but rolled on the floor and stood up again a bit farther from Vulture.

"You may not know this Zero, but so am I!" Vulture cackled.

"Perhaps so, Vulture." Zero said coolly, "But still I have fought stronger, faster and better enemies than you." He said and dashed forwards, halted just in front of Vulture as Vulture was bracing himself for the impact. Vulture crossed his arms over his chest and closed his eyes.

Vulture was expecting a blow but when none came he opened them and as soon as he did Zero punched him in the face.

"You pathetic fool, I am Zero! The ultimate killing machine, I am the perfect warrior." The flame around Zero grew bigger.

"You're wrong." Vulture, who fell on the floor now stood up.

"You are nothing but an ancient relic!" Vulture shouted and charged forwards, slashing so fast that he and his sword were seen as blurs.

Zero had no trouble defending himself from Vulture's slashes though; he blocked them with some effort but not something that would actually tire him.

"Are you finished?" Zero asked after Vulture stopped, panting.

"You… what is it in you? What madman would create such a monster?" Vulture said, and as he finished the sentence Zero's eyes widened and before Vulture even knew it, half of his arm was missing.

Blood was spilled and it stained the metal floor and crates.

Vulture looked down at his stump and then yelled in pain, his other arm grabbing the bleeding stump.

"Vulture no!" Whirlpool said and threw two harpoons at Zero, nailing him in his leg and on his side. It didn't seem to affect him, he pulled them out without even wincing and he barely noticed his own blood pouring on the floor.

In a flash of white Bullion appeared and grabbed Vulture.

"Whirlpool back to base now!" He yelled and disappeared with the one-armed reploid.

Whirlpool shot Zero a look of hatred and disgust and then she also disappeared in a flash of white, leaving Zero alone on the cargo vessel.

Zero fell quickly to his knees, without the power of the frenzy chip the pain was immense.

He quickly pressed a button on his comm. and called,

"Fairy?" another voice replied.

"Zero are you okay? Hang on, I'm coming to pick you up!" Leviathan's concerned voice was heard.

A second later she appeared with six pantheon hunters and four pantheon guardians at his side.

"Search the vessel." She ordered and the pantheons scattered.

"Zero! Oh dear are you okay? You must get to a infirmary!" She grabbed his arm and helped him up, supporting his weight.

The two transferred and as they arrived Zero saw destruction all around him, the mission room was completely ruined, so ruined it was beyond recognition.

Leviathan helped him to the infirmary, in which were four other reploids:

Harpuia, Fenrir Hahira, Aztec Falcon and Hubershnicdt.

"What happened?" Zero asked as he lay down on an examination table just before passing out.

Hubershnicdt was now conscious and tried to get up, but a nurse, Belle held him down.

"Calm down!" she said, "He'll be fine, just stay here. You've been seriously injured Mr. Hubershnicdt." He stopped resisting and shook his head.

"I should have come vith him!" Hubershnicdt said.

"There, there… everything is going to be fine." Belle comforted him and petted his muzzle.

Leviathan went over to Harpuia, sat near him and talked to him.

"He'll be fine…" Harpuia said and looked at her worried face, "he's Zero…"

Leviathan smiled a bit.

"What was that? How did he beat both executioners?" She asked him and he sighed.

"I guess he hasn't told you. So I will." Harpuia said and launched an explanation about Zero's frenzy chip.

**Meanwhile in the executioners' stronghold…**

"Vulture…" The master said in his deep voice.

"Yes my master?" Vulture tested his skeletal metal arm, it wasn't armored or even covered but it had to do for the time being.

"I have a little present for you, something I'm sure you will appreciate." The master said and a monitor near Vulture was turned on.

Vulture gazed longingly at the monitor and smiled heartily.

"Thank you master, this is the best gift I would ever receive."

**To be continued…**


	22. Troubled times

**Chapter 22: Troubled times**

"Dear citizens of Neo-Arcadia," Leviathan's voice boomed throughout the streets and public buildings of Neo-Arcadia, "we are in a crisis, four reploids calling themselves the executioners have caused us to lose many good reploids, as well as our entire air force. These are troubled times, at first we believed we were capable of handling this threat, acting covertly so to not worry you citizens, but I am afraid that we could not cope with them. They are extremely powerful reploids bent on destroying Neo-Arcadia. Our newest guardian Zero is the only one who has managed to successfully ward off the executioners, but he has sustained heavy damage and will not be active for a long time. Any volunteers to join Neo-Arcadia in its struggle to protect its citizens are welcome. And please, if you posses any information what-so-ever about the executioners, report to your nearest police station." Leviathan's voice faded, and as soon as it did a great scream of humans and reploids alike was heard throughout the streets of Neo-Arcadia.

**Neo-Arcadia's core…**

"Well, I've informed the citizens and already we have received dozens of volunteers." Leviathan said to Harpuia, "Fenrir is training them and briefing them. Falcon and Hubershnicdt went out to the police stations to question witnesses and I'm going to help renovate the mission room. I want to know what data that Daemon took before torching it."

Harpuia nodded, he was repaired and about to leave for an aerial scouting of the area around Neo-Arcadia, since the air fleet was destroyed.

Zero was still lying unconscious in the infirmary and was being taken care of by the maintenance reploids.

"I'm off, I know they're somewhere nearby and I have to find them!" Harpuia said, ever since Daemon beat him he insisted that the executioners were nearby but he didn't explain why to Leviathan or any of the others.

**A police station in downtown Neo-Arcadia…**

"If death had a name it would be Vulture." Said the hooded reploid to Falcon.

"He killed more than you can ever imagine, hundreds maybe even thousands. He never gives up on his prey. He will hunt you even past death, and he would rather die trying than give up. He left me alive after killing my friends, said I was pitiful that I shouldn't die because I'm too weak. I spat in his face and he drew his terrible double-bladed menace but I was saved by a reploid of amazing strength, he beat Vulture and sent him away and thus I survived. But now he's back, he is back for all of us." The reploid said.

Falcon looked grim, this man could only describe Vulture as a non-stopping killing machine and that wasn't good.

Hubershnicdt was in another room with another eyewitness but the witness had nothing cheerful to say either.

"The executioners are invincible, I saw it with my own eyes. There were two of them, a red one and a blue one, they killed my captain and the rest of our platoon. An entire Pantheon force couldn't stop them. And we joined the Pantheons we shot them and fought them with all we had but they were too strong and fast.

The red one just killed my commander and the blue one was about to kill me, the blue one was a female and then out of nowhere this reploid came and beat both of them. They exchanged words after the battle and the two disappeared." Fenrir listened carefully to the witness's version of what happened, desperate to hear anything useful but nothing came to his ears.

And later in another police station on the other side of Neo Arcadia Hubershnicdt was questioning another witness.

"Tell me vat you know about the executioners." He said quickly and erected his ears, to better hear the story.

"A golden reploid wandering the desert, he walked right past me without even looking at me. When he returned he stared straight into my eyes and I was petrified. He told me he was looking for a reploid called Demon no… no… Daemon he said. He asked me if I have seen him and I said no. He mumbled something about his master not being pleased and then said something about another executioner. Vulture I think he said." The witness said.

"And he didn't attack you?" Hub asked.

"No, he seemed worried and he just told me to scram and forget I ever saw him. I was out camping in the twilight desert…" And then Hubershnicdt asked,

"Where specifically?"

"I don't really know, I think the western part there were some ruins there so I camped in the shade of them and then I saw him." Hubershnicdt mentally noted to tell Harpuia or Leviathan immediately when he returns to base.

"Thank you very much. You may leave now." Hub said and stood up, he appointed Falcon to question the others and left towards the Neo-Arcadian core.

At the Neo-Arcadian core… 

"Right recruits. First thing you all should know, one guardian is out of commission and the other is dead." Fenrir said to the volunteers and loud gasps and murmurs spread through the hall quickly.

"Shut up." The room became silent, "The executioners are probably the strongest reploids you will ever encounter. The only reason we are all still standing here is because of Zero. That's right, Zero." At that another wave of murmurs swept through the room like storm.

"We are facing our worst enemy yet, these are monsters. They will kill you, pummel your body and burn your parts without hesitating. They do not take nor need prisoners of war and this is a war. Most of you will probably be retired so I ask of those of you who haven't the courage to fight them to leave this hall immediately, just bear in mind that each and every one of you is needed." No one moved and they all looked at him.

"Good, we have limited time for training so I want everyone who have been through military training or any kind of combat training to step forwards." Fenrir said and approximately a quarter of the reploids present moved forwards. "You," he said to them, "will help me train the others. The others will divide into groups and each will be guided by one of us is that clear?" Fenrir asked, as all nodded or muttered in agreement. "Let's get to work then."

Neo-Arcadia's ruined mission room… 

"Anything?" Leviathan asked the other operators after rummaging through the data files of one of the computer.

"Not here." Came a reply.

"Not here either."

"Or here."

"Look for information that was either moved or copied recently." Leviathan said.

"That's what we've been doing but there seems to be nothing at all… hold for a sec." Said an operator, a frown on his face.

"What if the executioner used one of the terminals to hack into one of the others around the base?" He asked.

Leviathan rubbed her chin with her hand slowly, deep in thought.

"Can you check what high-priority information was inserted to computers around the base?" Leviathan asked.

"Just a second." Said the operator and took out his portable terminal. He looked around and plugged it into the computer network.

He started typing quickly and soon later he said,

"Three topics, one: F-chip two: Executioners pictures three: dark elf." The operator said.

"Okay now check if any of the data was copied recently." Leviathan said, standing with her arms crossed on her chest.

"Yes, topic number one: F-Chip." The operator said.

"F-chip? Daemon took the information about Zero's…" Leviathan muttered and suddenly realized she was in a room full of people, she walked quickly and exited the room.

"Harpuia." She said into her comm.

"What is it Leviathan?" Harpuia asked as he flew.

"Daemon took the information about Zero's frenzy chip!" She said.

Harpuia turned and headed back to the base,

"No! If they will realize how to create one for themselves they'll be invincible!" He yelled to his comm.

"I know that and you know that but there is nothing to do about it!" Leviathan said.

"Call Hub and see if he has any information about the whereabouts of the executioners." Harpuia said as he sped to the base.

**Meanwhile at Neo-Arcadia's streets…**

Hubershnicdt ran as fast as he could, bumping at pushing civilians out of his way. Running through speeding highways and jumping over cars, he had to deliver the news he had quickly.

He ran and saw a group of humans talking in the middle of the street, he ran up to them and jumped on the wall of the building near them and then jumped off the building on the other side of the group.

He ran across a highway and was almost run over by a large truck, which screeched into a halt near him. He didn't stop; he had to get back to the core as soon as he could.

It took him about ten minutes but he reached the base, the doors opened and he rushed inside, to see Harpuia and Leviathan talking.

"Master Harpuia!" He panted, "I know where the executioners are… They're in twilight desert, the eastern part where the ancient ruins are… I got back as soon as I could." Hub said, breathing heavily.

"Organize all of the military." Harpuia said to Leviathan, "As soon as they're all ready we're going to attack the executioners."

Suddenly, an eerie voice sounded throughout the base the voice of Bullion.

"Harpuia and Leviathan, we have one of your friends." At that point the guardians heard muffled cries, they knew instantly who they belonged to. "Come to the same pyramid in which Zero killed Camazotz, at midnight tonight, alone." The voice ended.

Harpuia looked at his comm. unit, it was barely seven. P.M.

"It's a trap, they might be bluffing." Said Leviathan to Harpuia.

"But if they're not, I don't want to take that risk. Will you come with me?" He asked.

"Oh of course I will, but I hope you know what you're doing."

**To be continued…**

Author notes: This chapter was to emphasize how much trouble Neo-Arcadia is in, that's why it mostly concerned how they are dealing with this problem. I'm sorry it took me so long to updater, but I was just being lazy near the end.

**Merry Christmas and Hanukah to all.**


	23. Finding the truth

**Chapter 23: Finding the truth**

**The Mayan pyramid…**

Harpuia and Leviathan walked down the hall of statues, looking at the statues around them. They had to admit it wasn't as creepy when they were together.

"You think that they are telling the truth?" Leviathan asked, holding her harpoon at ready near her.

"I don't know but if they are…" Harpuia said, he also had his blades up.

"I don't think it's safe without Zero, I mean there's two of us and who knows maybe all of them are waiting for us there. Isn't it obvious that even if they spoke the truth than it's a trap?" Leviathan asked.

Harpuia didn't respond, he looked down at the two staircases and pointed at the right one.

Leviathan understood and started to descend in the right staircase and Harpuia on the left.

When they reached Camazotz's chamber they weren't surprised to see the four executioners grinning at them. And behind them, tied to a metal pole was the unconscious…

"Fefnir!" Harpuia yelled, "What have you done to him?" He asked furiously, activating his sabers.

Whirlpool and Daemon raised their eyebrows, Vulture and Bullion however stood still, and Vulture was flexing his skeletal arm.

"You might as well ask us to kill you." Daemon said and Whirlpool giggled, Bullion smiled but Vulture didn't even change his expression.

Harpuia didn't power down his sabers but he kept them up at ready.

Leviathan stood next to him and readied her harpoon, trying to catch his eye so that he could tell her what to do.

"As you wish, we were not going to attack you. But if you plan on attacking us I'm afraid that little Fefnir here is going to pay the price." Bullion said and Whirlpool raised her harpoon to Fefnir's throat.

"If you'll hurt him I will kill you!" Harpuia yelled, yet again Daemon and Whirlpool raised eyebrows and Vulture had the aura of a smirk about him but Bullion did an odd thing, he frowned.

"Harpuia, you haven't heard what we want yet. Be sensible, you don't know what we might say but you rashly make idle threats."

Harpuia stood with his sabers still at ready but didn't respond.

"What do you want?" He asked through gritted teeth.

"Now you're being more reasonable…" Bullion said, looking over at Whirlpool and Daemon who were whispering to each other, they fell silent immediately.

"I am going to give you an offer, you give us Zero and we'll give you Fefnir." Bullion said simply.

"What are you going to do to Zero if we give him to you?" Harpuia asked.

"We're going to deactivate him completely and take his systems apart. Then we'll take his frenzy chip once we make sure that the bomb mechanism is neutralized and we'll throw his body where it belongs. The scrap yard." Bullion said, not even a hint of amusement in his voice.

"No deal." Harpuia said, "If we give you Zero and you replicate the frenzy chip technology you will destroy us anyway." Harpuia said and Bullion smiled.

"You live up to your name Sage Harpuia. Yes, that is exactly what we will do. But… I think you'd find that we have more surprises up our sleeves. Vulture." He said and Vulture nodded, entered a dark area and returned with an unconscious…

"Leviathan? Who do you think you're kidding? She's right here with me." Harpuia said.

"No, the one with you is a fake one we planted at the battlefield when we first fought in Twilight Desert. We downloaded the real Leviathan's memory into her databank, we did such a good job she even thought she loved Zero. Of course she was completely clueless about who she really was." Bullion explained.

"As far as I'm concerned that's another doppelganger." Harpuia said dryly, looking at the Leviathan Vulture was holding.

"Oh we can prove that she's not a doppelganger." Bullion said and nodded at Vulture, Vulture held up her chin and opened one of her eyelids to reveal a blue eye.

"It can't be…" Harpuia said in disbelief.

"Are you willing to take the chance that this isn't the real Leviathan?" Bullion asked and motioned at Vulture with his hand. Vulture grabbed the Leviathan he was holding by the throat and pinned her against the wall, activating one side of his saber and holding it about an inch from that Leviathan's stomach.

"You're bluffing." Said Harpuia, he didn't want to risk it… He couldn't.

"Fine then, I guess that we'll just kill this Leviathan then." Bullion said and Vulture pulled back his arm, ready to pierce Leviathan's abdomen with his beam saber.

"No!" Harpuia yelled and Whirlpool and Daemon smiled, Vulture cackled maliciously and Bullion crossed his arms on his chest.

Harpuia looked at the Leviathan next to him and mouthed the weird combination of words 'One Fefnir, two leviathans, and me.' she looked at him and nodded back, she started pressing buttons on her comm.

"Calling for help won't matter." Daemon said, "It's not like there is anyone in Neo-Arcadia who can take on all four of us together."

"Well, what do you choose?" Bullion interrupted, "Do you choose to spare both Leviathans and thus ensuring that the real one lives and also getting Fefnir back or will you let one of the Leviathans die and live with a terrible guilty feeling since you'll never know if you killed the real one and you'll also lose Fefnir." Bullion said in a single breath.

"What will it matter? You'll still kill us." He said and Bullion replied,

"We promise that if you turn in Zero we won't raise a finger on you guardians."

"How do I know that this Fefnir is not just another copy?" Harpuia asked, feeling it can't possibly get any worse.

"Aw he's so cute when he's confused!" Whirlpool said and smiled an evil sweet smile.

Vulture laughed at that and Daemon chuckled; only Bullion remained silent.

"What is your decision?" He asked.

"Well, my decision is this: Operator, now." Harpuia said and disappeared in a flash along with the two Leviathans and Fefnir.

"What?" Vulture said as the Leviathan he was holding disappeared.

"They're smarter than I thought, I underestimated them…" Bullion said, he didn't seem mad but concerned.

"Bullion, what will the master say?" Whirlpool said, looking apprehensively at where Harpuia was.

"Don't worry, I'll take full responsibility for this." Bullion said, "Let's go…" The four transferred away.

**At Neo-Arcadia's core…**

The four were in Harpuia's office; a large rectangular room with a desk at the far end of it, next to it was a file cabinet. A large space with sofas was near the door for any type of appointments with various governmental agents.

"I don't believe we made it…" Harpuia sighed a sigh of relief; he looked over at the now conscious two Leviathans and Fefnir.

"How will we know who is the real one?" Fefnir asked, looking at the two.

"We can take a sample of their reploid DNA, the real Leviathan should have X's DNA inside of her." Harpuia explained, "Hubershnicdt, take them to the infirmary." He ordered and Hub rushed to comply.

"So… What happened while I was away?" Fefnir asked.

"We thought you were dead, seeing as a copy of yours was on a transport as the aerial fleet exploded." Fefnir coughed and hit his head a couple of times as if to make sure he heard correctly, "What?" He asked.

"That's right, the entire aerial fleet was destroyed. All we have now is the few reploids who are capable of flying. And that's not much." Harpuia looked over at him.

"And Zero? Where is he?" Fefnir asked.

"In the infirmary, the executioners hit him badly last time they fought." Harpuia said.

"Go there and ask the real Leviathan, she'll tell you everything we found out so far."

Fefnir looked at Harpuia for a second and asked, "You told me you threatened the executioners at first, why?" Fefnir asked, that didn't sound like Harpuia. Harpuia always listened first.

"I acted, I made them underestimate me and that's why we were able to escape. They didn't think I was smart enough to pull something like this. Now go and talk to Leviathan." Harpuia said and motioned Fefnir to leave with his hand.

He stood in his office and gazed out of his large window at the sky, knowing that the executioners' revenge will be terrible.

**At the executioners' stronghold…**

"I take full responsibility my master, I underestimated them." Bullion said, wincing as the master stood up from the metal throne he was sitting on.

The master stepped down, he wore a silvery-white cloak with golden trimmings and a hood so no part of him was visible except for two yellow orbs in the darkness of the hood.

"So you say they have both Leviathan and the copy, as well as Fefnir…" The master repeated agonizingly slowly.

"Yes master…" Bullion lowered his head in shame.

"Do not worry Bullion. I had planned for that occasion, remember what I asked you to do yesterday?" The master asked, his deep voice echoing from the walls.

"Yes," Bullion replied, wondering how that had to do with anything. Yesterday the master gave him Vulture and Whirlpool pages and asked them to read from them. As odd as that sounded, they didn't complain and did as he asked.

"It's time for a more direct approach. Bullion and Daemon go to Neo-Arcadia and burn it. I want to smell the city burn, kill every human or reploid who is standing in your way. Including the guardians, destroy as many things as you can in an hour and then return here. Whirlpool, I want you to destroy the aquatic base the Neo-Arcadians use for water control and purification for drinking. Vulture, you stay here. Your present is ready." The master said and went up to his throne again.

"Go." He said and instantly three of the executioners disappeared in a white flash.

"Come Vulture, I hope you will enjoy this gift I bestow upon you. As you know, Bullion was first in line for such a thing but I felt you deserved it, seeing that you lost your arm." The master said and led Vulture to another room.

"Enter the capsule Vulture." The master gestured at one of eight capsules, which was connected to another capsule that inside of it was floating another Vulture with a full arm.

"Thank you master." Vulture said and stepped into the capsule.

**At the Neo-Arcadian infirmary…**

Zero sat up, he woke up suddenly as if out of a bad dream.

"Oh sweetie, you got up already? The doctor said it was going to take at least a couple of days more… I guess you really have more inside of you than we thought." Belle talked but Zero barely listened, there was a mosquito in front of him that seriously disturbed him.

Belle noticed the mosquito and said, "Oh I'll take care of that dear." She smacked the mosquito but as soon as he landed on Zero's feet he took off again.

"Stubborn are we?" She asked and took out a bug spray from a nearby closet.

"This ought to take care of little o' him." She said and sprayed the mosquito.

The mosquito crashed on Zero's ankle but flew up again.

"What's this now?" Belle asked, looking at the mosquito.

She smashed him between her spread palms but the mosquito kept flying.

"What is this, some kind of mutant?" She asked angrily.

She took out a match and lit it, "Now you're going to die." She said angrily and torched the mosquito. The mosquito refused to die and started flying around the room and almost burned Belle's hair.

"Why I never!" She exclaimed and quickly opened a window; she fanned the mosquito away and quickly threw a handkerchief at him so he fell down with it.

"Now that was one persistent bug!" She said, looking back at Zero, she suddenly wrinkled her nose.

"I smell something burnt…" She said and impossibly enough the mosquito was buzzing near Zero again.

"I'm seeing it and I still can't believe it." Zero said, following the bug with his eyes.

Belle seemed very alarmed; she ran to the back of the room and brought a mosquito disposer (a small bug-like mechaniloid who eats mosquitoes).

"Now why didn't I think of this earlier?" She asked, following the mechaniloid as he gave chase to the mosquito.

Zero simply hit the mechaniloid with his hand, "Leave it alone, you hurt it enough already." He said, and the mosquito sat on his shoulder.

"If you say so." Belle said and caught the mechaniloid in her hand.

She walked away to the far side of the room and talked to another patient there.

Zero looked around when suddenly he heard an eerie whisper of the voice of Bullion.

"Why are you resisting?" The whisper asked, Zero looked around him, knowing that Bullion cannot be here undetected.

Then he heard Vulture's voice, "It is useless to fight back…" And then Whirlpool's "Join us, you'll prove valuable…" And then their voices said intermittently "Join us Zero…" "Join us…" " Come on Zero join us…" "Humans are pathetic Zero, they don't care about you, join us…" "Humans don't care if you live or die as long as they can sleep all day and do nothing, join us Zero…" "They think that a good reploid is a dead reploid, join our cause Zero…"

"Stop it!" Zero said, clapping his hands to his ears. "I will not listen!" He said, but the voices persisted.

"Join us Zero…" "Join us…" "You know we're right Zero…"

"NO!" Zero screamed and alerted the entire infirmary.

"What is it Zero?" Belle asked, but Zero couldn't hear her. He was going mad… No he couldn't be… Not now, please… he has to protect the humans.

"Leave me alone! Get out of my head, please…" He said, holding his head and shaking it feverishly like he could just knock the voices out of it.

Belle turned around and yelled something that Zero couldn't hear, he didn't care he only wanted to get the executioners out of his head.

"No! I won't, I will never!" Zero yelled again as the voices continued.

"Kill them Zero… You know you have to... They don't care about you, they don't care about anyone but themselves…" The other patients looked at him, a few moments afterwards Fefnir and two Leviathans entered the room.

Two Leviathans… Now he knew he lost his sanity.

"NO!" He let out a long scream and knocked them all aside, "Leave me alone!" He yelled and started running down the corridor, he reached a staircase and descended to ground level on foot, his hands clapped on his ears still.

He burst through the front door, knocking over a bunch of soldiers.

He ran and ran without stopping, he had to flee… He was dangerous… unstable… Who knew what this would do to him, if he went mad than anyone around him would be endangered. No, he couldn't let it happen he will have to get away.

"Why are you running Zero?" The voices asked chorally, "You can't run from your destiny Zero… You must join us…"

"No! Never. I will never harm humans… NEVER!" He yelled as he sprinted through the streets of Neo-Arcadia, knocking over civilians in his mad run for freedom.

He knew what he had to do… He had to go, to get as far away from Neo-Arcadia as he could, he couldn't risk staying with them if he was going mad.

"Goodbye guardians…" He said miserably, as he ran through the front gate to Neo-Arcadia, running into the devastated city. Guards at the gate him yelled at him but he was long gone before they could do anything to stop him.

He had to get away, to protect the others… from himself.

**To be continued…**


	24. Attacking NeoArcadia

Author note: This may be considered another executioner chapter since they are the protagonists here, only three of them anyway.

**Chapter 24: Attacking Neo-Arcadia.**

"This is too easy." Daemon complained, "We're in the center of Neo-Arcadia and no one even noticed! I thought they're supposed to be on alert status." He and Bullion were both hidden in cloaks and hoods so they couldn't be recognized, it seems this worked unexpectedly well.

"Oh be thankful Daemon," Bullion snapped, "It'll make our job easier, we only have an hour so it is good that we have met little resistance so far. We'll be able to cause more destruction in our time limit."

"I suppose…" Daemon sounded a bit disappointed, he hoped for a good fight.

"There's a human district up ahead, they will not know what hit them." Bullion said with a malicious grin.

"Bullion, you completely screwed up that sentence. It's like this: 'They'll never know what hit 'em.'" Daemon said in a low hoarse voice.

"What does it matter?" Bullion asked, irritated.

They reached a large barricade in which were a guard booth and six pantheons; four hunters and two guardian pantheons. Nearby stood a reploid dressed in Neo-Arcadian uniform and he looked at them in disinterest.

"Halt." A pantheon said, his monotone robotic voice loud. "This is a human only district, stand-by for inspection."

"I am afraid we can not comply with that order." Bullion said dryly.

"If you will not comply you will be detained." The Pantheon spoke again.

"Oh I'd like to see you try." Daemon said and instantly a chain ball emerged from the depths of his cloak and crashed into the Pantheon's head, crushing it completely.

The reploid gasped and tried to get to the alarm switch on the side of the guard booth but was intercepted by one of Bullion's beam sabers, which hit him right in the chest, he was deactivated almost immediately.

Bullion took out the second beam saber and slashed horizontally at a Pantheon guard, slicing its head off completely.

The Pantheon hunters started firing at Bullion and Daemon, they agilely dodged the bullets and jumped in the air, landing right in front of them.

Daemon used his chain ball and pierced a Pantheon's chest; the chain ball didn't stop there, but kept on and crushed the Pantheon hunter that was behind the one near Daemon.

Bullion quickly jumped sideways and picked up his second saber, and then he somersaulted forward and slashed a Pantheon hunter horizontally and followed with a vertical slash, cutting it to four pieces. Bullion proceeded with a dash and jumped when he was right in front of the second Pantheon, he landed behind him and stabbed the back of the Pantheon's head, deactivating it.

The two looked at the unchallenging foes now lying at their feet. Daemon mock-yawned and said, "How boring…" Bullion chuckled and the two proceeded down to the human district.

**At the Neo-Arcadian underwater base and water purifier…**

Whirlpool smiled as she just disposed of another Pantheon guardian.

There weren't any Pantheon hunters, so they won't accidentally pierce the hull of the base and cause a flood.

Another Pantheon came up behind her so she twirled her harpoon in her hands and stabbed backwards, piercing the Pantheon's abdomen, the cooling liquid (Pantheon's substitute for reploid blood) sprayed on Whirlpool's back.

She left the harpoon stuck in the still active Pantheon and walked away. The Pantheon moved to follow but the harpoon exploded a second after she walked away.

She summoned another one to her hand and whacked sideways at another Pantheon, the blow sent him flying into the wall where he slid to the floor, deactivated.

Whirlpool laughed as she threw her harpoons like javelins at two other Pantheons, those exploded in a brilliant blast.

She summoned yet another harpoon from her seemingly limitless supply and twirled in her hands slowly out of boredom.

"I need to reach the reactor core and destroy it, then the base would go boom." Whirlpool thought and chuckled to herself.

The most challenging thing she encountered was a reploid who shot a few buster shots at her before being pierced by three harpoons; two to the chest and one to the head.

Then he exploded, whatever was left of him flew in every direction.

"If I won't find something challenging soon I might, just might get bored." She thought.

"Well, well what have we here?" She asked as she entered someone's quarters.

The room was rectangular; on the left side was a very large bed, put so that the side was touching the left-hand wall and the bottom of it was touching the wall in which the door to the room was on. Next to the bed was a small bedside table with a reading lamp and a handkerchief. In the front of the room were a desk and several filing cabinets, on the desk were a name plaque and a picture but they were too dusty to see what was on them. The right-hand side was empty except for a large PRS (Personal repair station).

Whirlpool stepped closer and blew on the name plaque it read 'Blizzarak Staggroff'.

Whirlpool picked up the picture and shook the dust off it; there was a picture of Leviathan there, saying, "Keep up the good work." And signed, "L".

"So that was before Zero eh? I'll hold on to this." Whirlpool said and transferred the picture to her quarters in the stronghold.

She smiled triumphantly; suddenly the mission didn't seem quite boring at all. She proceeded through Blizzarak's office to the next room.

The core of the base was completely automated; in fact it was simply a very large machine. Blizzarak's quarters were before this machine to make sure nothing and no one would come in here. As far as Whirlpool knew Zero destroyed Blizzarak, she couldn't care more where he served.

She looked at the core; it was a large machine inside a central room, a really large machine.

"I Should either destroy it, or make it shut down. Hmm…" Whirlpool made a concentrating face and then smiled, "I think I'll destroy it."

**Neo-Arcadia, Human district…**

Bullion jumped down and stabbed with both of his swords to his sides, penetrating the armor of the Pantheon hunters and then he pulled the blades in a ninety degrees angle to his front, slashing the Pantheons' sides and causing them to collapse on the floor.

He stood up and smiled, he looked over at Daemon, which was having the time of his life; he destroyed a Pantheon using his spike ball and then took out a grenade from a compartment of his armor and threw it at a nearby building, blasting a hole in it.

"This is more like it eh Bullion?" He asked, laughing.

Bullion smiled and pulled out a crossbow; he placed an arrow on it and aimed carefully at another building. He shot the arrow and as soon as it collided it made a gigantic blast that caused the building to collapse on its neighbor, which collapsed on another building.

Daemon looked at him in shock, "I have to get one of those." He yelled at Bullion.

Bullion laughed heartily before loading the crossbow with another arrow.

"This is the Neo-Arcadian police! Drop your weapons and place your hands above your head!" A voice coming out of a police-cruiser said.

The police cruisers were small, but efficient peacekeeping shuttles.

They were fast and agile, suitable for pursuits in the city as well as moderately armed.

They had two laser cannons and a large plasma cannon and were the basic squad car for the Neo-Arcadian police.

Bullion aimed his crossbow up to the belly of the cruiser and shot it, the officers that hadn't seen the devastation caused by Bullion's arrows did not even try to avoid it and the cruiser exploded in mid air, hailing parts on the road and sidewalks below.

Daemon laughed as what was left of the cruiser crashed into a building, causing one of the floors to collapse.

"We have about forty minutes Bullion! Let's kick it up a notch!" Daemon called and crushed a Pantheon guardian that just arrived.

A squadron of Pantheon hunters showed up and opened fire at Bullion and Daemon, Daemon jumped high up in the air and powered his chain ball, swinging it at them and crushing them. He landed in their midst and swung his chain ball around, crushing every Pantheon that was near him.

While the Pantheons were distracted Bullion ran up to them and started hacking and slicing them with his beam sabers, ripping into their armor like a hot knife through butter. "When are the guardians going to get here?" Daemon asked impatiently, "I want to kill them already." He complained as he crushed the last pantheon hunter with his spiked energy ball. "Oh quit your yapping!" Bullion said irritably, twirling one of his beam sabers in his hand as he watched an incoming Mutos reploid.

"Freeze, in the name of the Guardians!" The Mutos called, his shape most resembled a large tiger, and he wore some sort of chain armor running from his collar down to his stomach. Leg plates protected his legs, and his large and muscled feet were encased in black jagged-soled boots. He held in one of his clawed hands some sort of whip and in his other a shield of sorts, more like a small buckler when comparing it to the size of the reploid holding it.

Bullion sneered and snickered as the reploid approached them slowly, "And you expect to defeat two executioners by yourself when your precious guardians could not?" He asked, crossing his arms on his chest and smiling maliciously along with his comrade. The tiger tilted his head to one side and asked, "Who said I was alone?"

Even Bullion and Daemon's high senses couldn't sense the good old stealth squadron's most promising students sneaking up behind them. Phantom truly did a fine job training them.

It came as a shock to both Bullion and Daemon as they were struck from behind, two swords making a large gash in their backs. The twin reploids behind them leapt backwards and disappeared.

"What's this trickery?!" Bullion demanded, turning around agilely and searching for the aggressors, Daemon kept an eye on the Mutos tiger and didn't blink.

The next attack came from their sides, to sharp kicks caused Bullion and Daemon to crash into each other. "Augh!" Daemon yelped in surprise as he crashed into Bullion.

"I've never expected this!" Bullion said excitedly as he turned around to look for the attackers again. "How exciting." He said, "Finally someone who can match us."  
"This is cowardice, hiding in the shadows!" Daemon roared, the Mutos tiger laughed.  
"If only Vulture was here…" Bullion said, "He was the one who was supposed to fight Phantom." They heard a loud metallic clunk from the direction opposite of the tiger and as the two turned to face it the tiger leapt from behind them, using his very strong feet to jump directly at them, hitting Daemon across the back with his whip, he also attempted to smack Bullion with the buckler but Bullion held his shield with one hand and kicked his abdomen, causing him to release the shield and soar backwards.

Bullion crushed the shield effortlessly in his hand and he felt a stab in his side. Blood seeped out of the wound in his side, when he turned his head he managed a glance at what hit him but couldn't see it clearly. Daemon stood up and went protectively in front of his partner, "You bastards! I'll kill every last one of you human lovers!" He yelled, the response was in the shape of two large fireballs directed at him. He deflected them easily with his energy spike-ball and saw Fefnir, standing in front of him with an expression of superiority.  
Bullion who meanwhile was covering the rear heard a whistling noise and jumped out of the way just in time to avoid Harpuia, who quickly rose after him and kicked his back. "I cannot believe the guardians caught us off guard!" Bullion said loudly as he somersaulted so he could land on his feet, "Us, the executioners! This is unacceptable!" Bullion said, clutching his side as he landed on his feet. "I don't understand Master!" Bullion said seemingly to no one, "How can this be? We are the fastest, most powerful reploids in existence, you told me that! How can we get injured by these pathetic weak replications of X?"  
Harpuia hovered nearby, sabers raised and ready. Daemon still stared at Fefnir without blinking, who in return glared at Daemon. "Bullion stop your whining, we can take them on." He said, he never got to prove how right he was since in that minute a figure teleported into the battle. A reploid cloaked with a silvery-white cloak with golden decorations whose head was covered with a hood stood now between the fighters. He stretched forwards one of his hands and suddenly two reploids appeared out of thin air. The two were black cat-like reploids with yellow eyes, prolonged pupils in the midst of the yellow that was their eyes. They hurriedly jumped backwards to join the tiger reploid and Fefnir and took a defensive stand, holding twokatanas in front of them.  
Harpuia soon flew to join them, now all were facing the new participant in the battle.

The reploid said in a deep echoing voice, "Greetings Harpuia, Fefnir, Slash, Clash and Suspor." He gestured first at Harpuia and Fefnir and then at the two cat reploids and the tiger reploid. "I see Mr. Hubershnicdt is joining us along with Mr. Falcon and Mr. Hahira." He added as the three raced over, Hubershnicdt and Fenrir on foot and Falcon in the air.  
"Who are you?" Harpuia yelled at the reploid, holding his sabers at ready.  
"I am the master of the executioners, my name is Haze. It is nice to meet you again Harpuia." Haze said, the satisfaction in his voice rang out in everyone's ears. Harpuia frowned for a second, but when he finally remembered he dropped his arms to his sides. "You!" He said, Fefnir also seemed to understand and bared his teeth, "Impossible Harpuia, don't believe his lies!" He yelled, raising his cannon and firing twice. Haze raised his hand and with two calm and swift movements deflected the fireballs.

**Meanwhile at the aquatic water-purifying facility, Core room…**

"So you finally found out who the real Leviathan was eh?" Whirlpool cackled at Leviathan. "The bombs you planted on the fake Harpuia stole from you were very helpful!" Leviathan yelled, feeling a scorched part of her face that was bandaged temporarily.

Whirlpool laughed heartily and pointed at Leviathan, "Oh, Ms. Neo Arcadia is no longer that pretty huh?" She asked mockingly, nearly doubling over from laughter.

Leviathan lost her temper, she raised her own harpoon and charged at Whirlpool, whose face became dead serious and all hints of laughter faded from her face entirely as she blocked her.

"When will you guardians understand that you can't take us on?" She asked, looking Leviathan straight in the eyes. "We won't… let you… kill the humans!" Leviathan puffed as she tried to whack Whirlpool with a combo of three strikes. Whirlpool blocked it expertly and stared at Leviathan again. She suddenly pounced at Leviathan and pinned her to the floor, choking Leviathan with the shaft of her harpoon.

"Let me tell you about the humans I know," She said, rage flaming in her eyes, "One abused me, the others tortured Daemon to the verge of insanity and others let Copy X slay our reploid brethren for so long." She said, the anger in her voice emphasized, "Is that what you choose to die for? A bunch of needy, greedy exploiters?! You guardians never had to take what common reploids do! They are being robbed, abused and tortured right under your nose and you don't even care!" She yelled at Leviathan, a small tear forming in her eye. "You were never abused! Your dead buddy Copy X made sure of that didn't he? Didn't he?! You are so confident that you fight for what's right that you stop looking around you!" The tear rolled down her cheek slowly and dropped down to Leviathan's own cheek. Leviathan looked up at Whirlpool and for the first time she understood, the executioners really believed in what they were fighting for. They really believed humans to be evil; they really believed that they should be destroyed… Whirlpool quickly jumped off of Leviathan and pointed her harpoon at Leviathan's throat. "We unlike Copy X, gave you a choice." She said, "You chose to fight us, you chose to protect the humans. I'll give you one more chance to make your choice, but the next time we meet you'd have better made the right one." Whirlpool said, turned around and hurled her harpoon at the core. The core started malfunctioning and alarms went off. "Core malfunction, please evacuate all personnel." A metallic voice said as small explosions came from the core machine. "Ta ta for now sugar." Whirlpool said and blew a kiss at Leviathan, returning to her old self after thetantrum she let out and disappeared.

**To be continued…**

Author notes: Don't worry, you probably don't understand a thing but almost everything will be explained in the next chapter, the rest will be explained later on. Goodbye for the meanwhile.  
-Cursor


	25. The red menace

**Chapter 25: The red menace.**

"I suggest that you hear what I have to say before trying such a useless tactic again." Haze said, gesturing at the two fireballs he deflected, they were speeding up and disappearing from view.

Harpuia stared at him and put his guard up again, "You can't be Haze. Haze died in an explosion." Haze raised his head slightly to look at him, "Indeed Harpuia? Or perhaps he faked his own death?"

Fefnir bared his teeth, "Then tell me why the heck would you make the plans for all of these weapons we have? The Pantheons, the bombers, you even made the golems!" He bellowed at Haze. Haze turned to look at him and underneath the hood two shiny yellow eyes glinted, "Just to show you that even with all of these weapons, your army, you wouldn't be able to stand against the might of my perfect creations." He gestured at Bullion and Daemon. Daemon looked at him in shock and let out, "You made us!" before Bullion clapped his hand on Daemon's mouth, shutting him up.

"You're mad!" Harpuia yelled, "Retire him!" Fefnir started sprinting towards him even before Harpuia gave the word. Bullion and Daemon moved to intercept him but Haze held them back.

Fefnir sent a powerful punch at Haze's abdomen and Haze made no effort to dodge it. Fefnir's fist collided forcefully with Haze's chest but Haze didn't move at all, he was in the same place, unfazed by Fefnir's attack. "What the…?" Fefnir managed before Haze delivered a punch of his own, so fast it was merely seen as a white blur reaching to Fefnir's chest, before Fefnir went flying across the street and into a human office building. Scared faces of humans could be seen peeking out of the windows down at Fefnir's unconscious form.

"Fefnir!" Harpuia yelled, flying directly to him and landing besides him.

* * *

Zero was sitting on a rock spire, hugging his knees and looking at the vast desert.

"Join us Zero!" Bullion said, "You know we're right! You know what the humans think about you don't you? They hate you Zero. They hate you with no reason at all. Join us Zero, and we can kill their hatred for reploids." Then Vulture stepped in, "You need to join us Zero, or else we'll have to obliterate you." Zero snickered, "You tried enough times to know that you can't do that." Then he heard Whirlpool's voice, not echoing inside his head but coming from nearby, behind him. "Hey Zero, there's something I think you should take a look at." Zero jumped to his feet and whirled around, drawing his Z-saber in the process. Whirlpool was standing there, holding something in her hand, a picture frame. "Why don't you relax and take a look at this?" Whirlpool said with a smirk, after 'modifying' the picture back at her base she brought it here for Zero to see. "I found this in Harpuia's office." She lied and smiled, Zero looked at the picture, which now said "To my dear Harpuia, love, Leviathan." and signed with a red lipstick mark of a kiss.

Zero stared at it for a moment, disbelieving. "No." He said, "She wouldn't…" Whirlpool smiled and placed her arm around Zero's head, holding the picture right in front of his eyes. "But she did." At that moment the voices renewed in Zero's head. "Argh!" He screamed, hitting Whirlpool as he tried to free himself from her grasp. Whirlpool stumbled and fell off of the spire, battering in the rocks before landing on the desert soil. "Ouch…" She said, slowly standing up and leaning on a harpoon she summoned. "What a grouch." she said and then transed away in a flash of white, leaving Zero to his rage. "HARPUIA!" He screamed. A pack of mechaniloid vultures that were circling him in hopes of catching him off guard fled at the sound of the shout.

Once again, Zero was surrounded in a brilliant flame and he jumped off of the spire, the impact on the sand was so powerful that the sand around him shot into the air and clouded him; he burst through the sand and headed towards the place where both Leviathan and Harpuia could be found, Neo-Arcadia.

* * *

"Indeed, I made weapons for Neo-Arcadia, indeed I helped my creator's son make weapons for you to use. But I plotted this for a long time, you have no idea. I always knew that one day the name Manus would strike fear into the heart of humans and I was right. I wasn't about to destroy you all, only the government. But you just had to go and do it." Harpuia interrupted, "Look at what you've done! You've killed countless of innocent reploids and humans!" Haze stared at Harpuia, "And you killed my brother." He said coldly. "What in the world are you talking about…?" Harpuia started, but Haze, Bullion and Daemon were gone.

"Damn." Harpuia said, radioing the headquarters so they would trans away Fefnir.

Fenrir, Hubershnicdt and Falcon exchanged gloom looks, and then looked at Harpuia.

"Find Zero you three. Falcon, go to Dysis forest., Fenrir go to the Kalendra ice fields, he might be there. Hubershnicdt, go to the desert.

The three nodded and transed away, each to the locations they have been ordered to go to.

Leviathan came running towards Harpuia, huffing.

"Harpuia…" She puffed, "We have to talk…" Harpuia looked at her, "Let's get back to the base, we'll talk there." He transed away and Leviathan followed him.

* * *

Vulture opened his eyes, green liquid surrounded him. He looked down at his arm and saw his new hand. He then turned to look at himself floating in another capsule, deactivated. He placed his hands on the sides of the tube and the green liquid started draining, slowly passing Vulture's head and coming down to his neck, then to his chest, stomach and knees. The capsule then opened slowly, and vulture stepped out. His new form felt much better than his old form, he was pulsing with power.

"Whoa, this power… I think I'm even stronger than Bullion…" Vulture said to no one in particular. He punched the air for practice and the punch was so powerful that it created a force wave that slammed into the nearby wall and cracked it. Vulture stared in awe at the cracked wall, admiring his new power. After a while a smile dawned on his face, he then started chuckling soon the chuckle became laughter which grew more and louder until Vulture was practically causing the nearby window's glass to shake with his sound waves. "The power!" He said and burst into a fit of maniacal laughter, "Vengeance will be mine!" He laughed.

* * *

Hubershnicdt transed to the desert gate, the guards slowly opened it and he started walking on the hot sand, perking his ears for any odd sound. He hastened his steps; they needed to find Zero and fast, Hubershnicdt continued walking and gained a couple of miles from Neo Arcadia when he heard this weird noise, flames crackling and a whistle. A gigantic ball of flame with a figure inside that Hub recognized as Zero passed by him, the sheer force of it pushing him away and unto the burning sand. "Zero!" Hub yelled.

* * *

"So she was on top of me and she was yelling about how humans abused her and the other executioner Daemon. In the middle of this she shed a tear, I could see on her face when she looked at me that she truly did believe that humans are monsters. These guys really do think that the humans are a burden on this world Harpuia. I just didn't know what to say." Leviathan said, looking at her feet. Harpuia placed his hand on her shoulder and looked at her in a comforting look, "And now Zero's gone too… Why did he run Sage? This is just too much… I don't think I can take this anymore… Why did these Executioners had to ruin everything?" Tears built up in her eyes. "Leviathan, this might not be the time to tell you but… The one who made the Executioners, the so called 'master' is Haze Manus…" Harpuia said quietly.

Leviathan always looked up to Haze back in the time he was working for Neo-Arcadia; she adored him for his determination, intelligence and wisdom. He and Phantom used to exchange their knowledge and he was always happy to show Harpuia his weapon designs and let Fefnir test the weapons themselves. Even master X was fond of this reploid, who dedicated himself to create weapons for the Neo-Arcadian cause. They all liked him, until the 'accident'. It was a very sad day when they heard that Haze died in an explosion. Leviathan, who had a crush on him at the time, was crying for the whole day. That was the one day that Fefnir wasn't in the training room. Harpuia himself climbed up to the highest point in Neo-Arcadia and sat there, mourning. No one knew what Phantom did but it doesn't matter now… He's dead too.

Leviathan stared at him in shock. "No… Harpuia you must be wrong it's impossible… not Haze…" she burst into tears, collapsing under all of the recent stress and cried into Harpuia's shoulder. Harpuia held her with one arm, looking down at her in a brotherly look.

Just then the alarms sounded and through the wall burst Zero, engulfed in a red flame. His eyes were wild and his hair untamed, instead of coming down in his usual pony-tail it was loose and spread on his back. Zero stared straight at Harpuia as if not seeing him at all.

"So that's what you've been doing! You just waited 'till I was gone huh you filthy bastards!" Zero shouted and charged at Harpuia, who pushed Leviathan out of harm's way and suffered the full force of the impact. Zero punched him in the abdomen and sent him crashing through the wall and into another room.

"I'll kill you Harpuia you traitor!" Zero shouted, jumping through the hole Harpuia made. He started to walk towards Harpuia, kneeling across the room in front of a cracked wall.

"What are you doing Zero?" Harpuia asked, holding his aching head.

"Don't you ask me what am I doing you moron! You know damn well what I'm doing!"

"Zero stop!" Leviathan yelled through thehole but Zero gave her a wild stare, so unrecognizeablethat it made her back up against the wall.

* * *

Hubershnicdt sprinted all of the way back to the gate, he reached there, breathing heavily and immediately called for Falcon and Fenrir. The guards flooded him with questions, seeing as there was now a gigantic hole in the middle of the gate, but he ignored them and ran to the transerver, deciding to immediately report to Harpuia.

He transed into the Neo-Arcadian base to find Leviathan, standing in the middle of the room in front of a hole in the wall, guards standing near her. Hubershnicdt ran towards the hole and entered the connected room. He saw Harpuia on the floor and Zero looking down at him, the fireball still around him.

"Zero no!" Harpuia said, trying to shield his eyes from the intense heat with his arm.

Hubershnicdt didn't waste time and pounced on Zero, the intense heat burning his artificial fur and skin, Zero however seemed unaffected by the heat of his own flame.

Hubershnicdt knocked Zero down on the floor and in an instant grounded him.

"Thro me a stun gun, hurry!" He called to the guards. Almost all of them were frozen in place but one of them quickly took up his stun gun and tossed it to Hubershnicdt. Hub grabbed it and quickly pressed it to Zero's neck. Zero, who has not yet recovered from the surprise of Hub's sudden attack didn't manage to react before Hub activated the stun gun.

To be continued…

Author notes: I am extremely sorry for the very long wait! I'll try to catch up quickly.


	26. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26: Escape and discovery.**

Zero opened his eyes, his head was aching and he felt sick. His blond hair was almost completely covering his view; it seemed someone took his helmet off. From what he could see from behind the locks of hair he understood that there were three more people in the room. One was sitting with his back to him, his outer layer was in some places metallic and in some places it looked like a skin-colored gelatinous fluid, which was dripping down to the floor. Another was standing in front of him and cleaning up his outer layer from the sticky liquid. The third one in the room was unmistakable, it was Harpuia.

Zero couldn't remember how he got here, not to mention why he had such a big headache. He remembered seeing Leviathan… no, two Leviathans and Fefnir too… He must have been crazy. It couldn't be.

He was in the infirmary of the Neo-Arcadian base and for some reason he couldn't move. He tried moving his hands but something was holding them back.

"Harpuia," Zero said, trying to blow his hair away from his eyes. "What's happening?"

Harpuia looked at him solemnly and stepped towards him.

"Harpuia, what's going on?" Zero asked, pulling his arms again to no avail. "Why can't I move?"

Harpuia stared at him a bit more, considering his words, then he said, "You're restrained Zero, I'm sorry. You've become a menace; you are jeopardizing the citizens of Neo-Arcadia. I'm sorry Zero, but…" He paused, looking at the floor and said, "We'll have to retire you."

Zero stared at him in shock _A menace? Retire me?_ He thought, trying to understand what he has done to deserve something like this.

"We can do nothing, if we don't retire you the human government will force us to."

"Done." A female voice said, the nurse finished cleaning the gooey substance off of the person sitting in the chair. The chair turned around and when Zero saw Hubershnicdt's metallic face it all came back to him.

_"They don't care about you Zero… Join us Zero…"_

_"You filthy bastards!" . . . "What are you doing Zero?" . . . "You know damn well what I'm doing!" . . . "Zero stop!" . . . "Zero no!" . . . "Thro me a stun gun, hurry!"_

It all struck him; he was trying to retire Harpuia, on the way obliterating every obstacle in his course to the Neo-Arcadian base. So he **was** mad. He looked at Harpuia but Harpuia didn't look back, he simply turned and left the room.

Hubershnicdt looked at him and tried to say something, but his voice box was completely ruined. When he shouted for the stun gun the intense heat melt it, so what came out was a bunch of creaks and robotic unintelligible sounds.

"Hold on Mr. Hubershnicdt. I need to replace your voice box." The nurse said, Zero couldn't imagine the pain Hubershnicdt had been through to save his life. His duty as a Neo-Arcadian soldier was to eliminate threats. But instead he risked his own life to stun Zero instead of shooting him with his buster.

The nurse approached Hubershnicdt and he opened his mouth. She took out some device and pulled out of Hubershnicdt's throat the circular voice box. She then replaced it with another, shiny voice box and took out another device, it was long and had tweezers at the end of it. Near the handle was a screen, allowing the nurse to see what she was doing as she used the device to connect the wiring to the proper places.

"Okay, finished Mr. Hubershnicdt, the voice model you had is no longer manufactured so you'll have a different voice now.

"Thank you." Hubershnicdt said, all accent gone from his voice. His voice was now deep and confident. "Finally, I got rid of that old, broken voice box. I didn't want to ask for a new one but now I won't have that silly accent anymore. When I fought Hyena and my jaw malfunctioned the voice box was affected too." Hubershnicdt explained to Zero, "So since then I had that accent. I talked like a German to fit it but I really couldn't stand it. I guess I should thank you for that huh Master Zero?" Hubershnicdt said sadly. He stood up and started pacing around the room, looking at the nurse who was busy with some device in the back.

He leant over to Zero and whispered, "Just say the word Master Zero and I'll get you out of here. Just say it and you'll be free."

Zero smiled at him, but shook his head, his blond hair gracefully covering his face.

Hubershnicdt looked at him, and even though he wasn't capable of facial expressions Zero knew he was sad. "Look Hub, I don't want you to break any laws. You've served Neo-Arcadia for so long and I'd hate you to ruin your perfect record because of me."

Suddenly, the door opened and Zero heard footsteps, he couldn't see much because of his hair so he couldn't see who entered the room.

"I'll leave." He heard Hubershnicdt say and the door opened again, and shut again.

A warm, gentle hand pet Zero's cheek as Leviathan's face entered his field of view.

"Zero…" She said softly, tears in her eyes.

"Don't worry about me Leviathan; once they get rid of me at least Neo-Arcadia will be safer." He said, and a tear slid down Leviathan's cheek.

"Zero, I should tell you something. We've met the leader of the Executioners; his name is Haze Manus…" That name… it rang a bell in Zero's mind. Where has he heard it before? It was so long ago… "He was a weapon designer and builder for Neo-Arcadia back when Copy X was in charge. He made the Pantheons, the Golems and most of our mechaniloids." Zero was only half-listening to her, he was thinking about that name. Haze Manus, for some reason it was very familiar and related to another name, what was it? A wave of memories swept over him, he remembered sacrificing himself so that X could destroy Vile, and he remembered waking up later and helping X overcome Sigma… Then he… What was it? He couldn't remember. "That name sounds so familiar…" He muttered. "Hmm?" Leviathan looked at him, "That name, Manus… It's familiar to me. From before I woke up in that laboratory. From before Neo-Arcadia." Leviathan stared at him for a moment, "Zero, that's quite impossible. We have a record of all of the survivors of the Elf Wars. Haze Manus was created afterwards." She said. "Please check again Fairy. I know I heard that name before."

Leviathan nodded and planted a kiss on Zero's lips. "I'll be back soon." She said and left.

As she left Hubershnicdt returned to the room. "Here you are Mr. Hubershnicdt!" The nurse said, quickly pacing over to him and forcing him to sit in the chair. "Now sit still so I can create your new skin." She said and started working. Zero watched as a machine slowly spilt some skin-colored liquid on Hubershnicdt's metallic exterior and it hardened in a few seconds. After that the nurse started to plant hairs on Hub's new skin, it was agonizingly slow and boring to look at it, but what other choice did Zero have?

After a few minutes of this boring procedure Leviathan came back. "No Zero, we only have a James Manus on the list, and he was human. He worked with Haze on the weapons; apparently he was Haze's creator." Leviathan said. "What?" Zero heard a voice from another bed somewhere in the infirmary. "Levi, I think Zero's right." Leviathan turned to where the voice was coming from. "What makes you think that Fef?" She asked. "Well Haze, he did say something odd. He said he worked with the **son **of his creator to make weapons for us." Now Zero could see Fefnir, wearing a red jumpsuit. Wait a minute, Fefnir? What the heck? Fefnir was dead! What on Earth?

"He did? But the only other Manus on record is Martin Manus and James' son Jonathan Manus. But Martin died back in Sigma's time. It's impossible that Haze would…" And suddenly it all clicked to place. "Martin Manus was killed by human anti-reploid activists following the third maverick uprising lead by Sigma. Martin Manus was known for the creation of Enigma laser cannon, which was later used to slow down the Eurasia colony before it crashed into earth." She said almost robotically. Zero looked up at her for a moment, "Fefnir's alive?"

"Later." Leviathan said, and Fefnir interrupted.

"He'd have to be practically ancient to be as old as you say Zero. I mean, James died about five years ago, reaching well over a hundred years old." "More than one hundred years old? Is that even possible for a human?" Zero asked.

"Yeah, he got his brains into one of his robot thingies but eventually decided to shut down." Fefnir answered.

"I have to go inform Harpuia." Leviathan said, rushing out of the room. Fefnir took a glance back at the nurse, who was still tending to Hubershnicdt and almost finished tending to his hairs. "I should go with 'er." Fefnir said and left, leaving Zero to look at the boring hair-planting process. Which turned out to be even more boring once it was finished. "Where's Master Fefnir? He hasn't left has he now?" The nurse asked, Zero nodded and she left the infirmary.

Hubershnicdt stood up and turned to Zero, pulling out a shock gun again. "Hub, What're you doing?" Zero managed to ask before Hubershnicdt activated the gun and yet again he sank into a dreamless slumber.

Zero awoke in the middle of the desert, the shock gun's effects haven't worn out yet and he couldn't move. "Hubershnicdt what's going on?" Zero asked.

"You gave me my life, so I'm giving you yours." Hubershnicdt replied, transferring away in a flash of white.

Zero quickly jumped to his feet, his helmet was placed right near his feet and he picked it up.

"Rats." He muttered under his breath, he thought for a moment and made a quick decision. He then dashed straight towards the north-east, towards the resistance base.

* * *

"He what!" Harpuia banged on his desk with his fist.

"Escaped Master Harpuia, I shouldn't have left him alone." Hubershnicdt said, shaking his head slightly.

"But how did he…?" Harpuia started but stopped,. "Never mind, just find him Hubershnicdt." Harpuia said and gestured for Hubershnicdt to leave the office.

As Hubershnicdt left Harpuia opened a comm. Channel, he closed his eyes for a moment and said, "Leviathan…"

"Yes?" Leviathan's feminine voice replied.

"Zero has escaped. His frenzy chip has affected him too much I'm afraid." Harpuia said forlornly, looking at a specific spot on the wall and not moving his eyes from it.

"He what? No!" Leviathan's worried voice sounded through the comm.

"I sent Hubershnicdt to look for him, but I want you and Fefnir to get over here."

"But…" Leviathan started and then changed her mind, "Okay…"

Harpuia turned to the window of his office and looked down at Neo Arcadia, deep in thought.

* * *

Bullion, Vulture, Whirlpool and Daemon knelt in front of their master, bowing their heads.

"It is time, my children, Time for the final battle." Haze said in his deep voice, standing tall in front of them.

"Daemon, Bullion, Whirlpool, you will guard the inner sanctum and make sure that the guardians will not pass. Vulture, you will guard my chamber, to make sure that Zero is worthy to face me. You will use your new ability against him." All four nodded. "Go and prepare yourself my children, for this is the battle which will decide the fate of thousands." All four nodded again and cleared for their rooms.

"Don't worry, human. Soon Zero will be destroyed and your entire race will be extinct, I wonder though, why is Zero so stubborn?" Haze asked, walking towards a shadowy corner. A feminine voice replied. "Zero won't give in to the likes of you! He will do whatever he can to protect the innocents and you can't stop him you…" She was interrupted by Haze, slapping her across the face. "No human shall speak to me like that. You'd do better to mentally prepare yourself to your death." Haze shot her one last glance before walking towards his throne again.

* * *

Zero reached the gates of the resistance base, but they were empty. The guards were missing. Zero walked towards the gates and looked at the guard towers, they were empty.

"What the…?" Zero asked, then climbing above the gates and landing inside the base.

He went to the elevator and descended to the first level, no one. He descended to the second level and went to the control room, besides from a huge amount of red fluids that disturbingly looked like blood he didn't find anything.

He quickly ran and descended to the third floor, looking in the rooms as he went and finding the red fluid in every one.

"No…" Zero said, looking around he saw pieces of olive green cloth, pieces of uniform and a flashback came to him.

_He was standing inside a large room, filled with olive green pieces of cloth. He didn't pay much attention to them, but his attention was directed at his foe, Vulture._

"No!" Zero yelled, dashing upwards to Ciel's room. He frantically opened the door and entered, to find the room in perfect order, a note was placed on Ciel's computer. Zero picked it up and looked at it.

_"Zero, if you're reading this note then you surely know that your friends are all here… save for a few who resisted… I am leaving the Trans coordinates for our stronghold here for you, as well as a portable transerver. It is on Ciel's bed. I hope to see you soon._

_Vulture."_

Zero looked at Ciel's bed; a round device was placed there. Zero slowly walked over and picked it up.

He didn't hesitate for a second; he opened a comm. Channel to Neo-Arcadia and transferred the coordinates to the operator.

"Give these coordinates to Harpuia! They're the coordinates of the Executioners' stronghold!" Zero yelled, "Tell him that I'm getting there now!"

Zero picked up the portable transerver and opened it, inside was a keyboard and a screen. Zero punched in the coordinates and pressed the 'Enter' key, he then disappeared in a flash of white to the Executioners' stronghold's entrance.

* * *

"You have to be kidding me." Harpuia said.

"No master Harpuia, he just contacted me with these coordinates, he said that the Executioners' base is there." The operator replied, not less confused than Harpuia.

"So what happens now?" Leviathan asked, "Are we sure that the frenzy chip hasn't affected Zero too much?"

"I don't know Leviathan, I really don't know. But if he's right and we don't act now, they'll have a chance to escape." Harpuia said.

"That's stupid; if we leave for their stronghold then Neo-Arcadia will be nearly defenseless and most chances are that we will lose anyway. We can barely face up to one of the executioners. Not to mention all four of them and their master. Zero or not we don't stand a chance." Fefnir said wisely, his arms crossed on his chest.

"You're right Fefnir, but we can't give them more time. Haze could easily build an army of machines and march it against Neo-Arcadia, if we don't strike now we may never get another chance. That's why I'm sending all of our forces except for the Aerial Patrol.

"What?" Both Fefnir and Leviathan asked in alarm. "You can't be serious Harpuia you'll leave Neo-Arcadia completely defenseless!" Leviathan said.

"The army has no use inside of Neo-Arcadia. We cannot use heavy mechaniloids here because they will damage the citizens; neither can we use any artillery. We need to take the fight to them and finish it, once and for all. Go and get ready."

The looks of absolute determination upon Harpuia's face made the two understand that there was no talking him out of his plan. They exchanged dark looks and left the room.

"Send out a message: We're sending a full scale attack at the Executioners. Mobilize the army the Aerial Patrol remains in Neo-Arcadia." Harpuia quickly pressed a button on his comm. Unit and said, "Hub, never mind searching for Zero. Get back to base immediately."

* * *

Neo-Arcadia's main military base was full of chaos as the guardians mobilized Neo Arcadia's army to attack the Executioners. Thousands of reploids, Mutos and humanoids alike formed the second attack wave, whereas the first attack wave was made out of thousands of mechaniloids, including Pantheons of all kinds, heavy assault mechaniloids and Golems of all elements. Artillery was at the back, in case it would be necessary to destroy the stronghold in order to defeat the executioners.

The guardians and their subordinates led the gigantic army, Harpuia with Falcon, Fefnir with Fenrir and Leviathan with Hubershnicdt. Neo Arcadia's military mass transed to the coordinates given to them by Zero, preparing to strike…

**To be continued…**


	27. The End

**Chapter 27: The End.**

Zero stood at the entrance to a gigantic stone temple, perhaps the size of the Neo-Arcadian military base. He looked up at the gigantic stone doors, which began opening at the moment he arrived. They slowly slid open, revealing a gigantic chamber inside of the structure. Inside the chamber stood only three reploids, in order from left to right they were Daemon, Bullion and Whirlpool. They were standing there, in their battle armor. Bullion stepped aside, hinting that Zero should pass on to the next chamber.

Zero walked and looked at the Executioners. They were all looking in the same direction, the direction Zero just came from. Zero, although knowing who awaited him in the next chamber was still rather suspicious, but he knew that the Executioners won't interrupt his next two battles and he knew that they were going to make sure that no one else does the same from Neo Arcadia's side.

And there he was, facing his short time nemesis, Vulture. Vulture stood with his right side towards Zero. He had a mad look in his eyes and his smile was somewhat twisted.

As Zero stopped, Vulture looked up at him, his smile broadening. Zero noticed that Vulture's wings were no longer feathery and vulture like, but bat like, giant wings.

"Zero!" He called in an unnaturally high voice, as if calling for an old friend, "I'm so happy to see you!" His voice was shaking now. Zero saw his hand was repaired and immediately guessed. "You've downloaded your CPU to a new body…"

"That's right Zero, I have, and now… I will show you the true meaning of power, power that even your frenzy chip can't defeat!" Vulture's voice rather sounded as though he was crying, but Vulture's smile was broader than ever.

"Vulture, you're not alright." Zero said with certain disgust in his voice, he was himself again, he knew that. He was completely himself for the first time since he found out about his frenzy chip. "Your processing unit can't handle the stress caused by your power Vulture, you're going mad." Zero said, his Z-saber now in his hand.

"Oh, Zero, you will forever be the redeemer of all living beings!" Vulture started laughing at that. "But I'm beyond redemption." Vulture's voice became now sharp and deadly and with a wide wave of his hand he sent a shockwave of kinetic energy at Zero. Zero jumped above the shockwave and dashed at Vulture, whose hand was engulfed in green energy, seemingly creating a large beam saber from thin air.

The beam sabers clashed, the two warriors held their ground and pushed against each other. After a few moments Vulture made the first move, he kicked Zero's side and somersaulted backwards, then dashing at Zero. Zero stumbled backwards from the kick, but quickly retaliated and hopped over Vulture, kicking the back of Vulture's head. Vulture stumbled forwards and turned around, "Nice work Zero, very nice. But handle this!" And with a mighty blow Vulture punched the ground, raising a force wave and causing stones to soar at Zero's direction.

Zero didn't hesitate; he jumped in the air right above the shock wave, somersaulting in order to slash at the rocks flying at him. Vulture didn't lose time however; he lunged at Zero and swung his saber horizontally, trying to slash him in mid air. Zero tried as best he could to avoid it, but got nicked on his shoulder. Quickly thinking he drew his buster and began charging a shot.

"Oh? A buster? Ha!" Vulture laughed. "Let us see what your buster can do." He arrogantly stood in front of zero, pointing directly at his own chest.

Zero closed his eyes and focused his energy into the weapon; he hoped he remembered the technique right. What Vulture didn't know was that Zero managed to grab a stone while in the air.

He made as if he was shooting at Vulture but at the last second he shot up at the ceiling, at the same time hurling the rock at Vulture's head.

Instinctively, Vulture defended, slashing the rock. But that took him the time he needed to dodge the collapsing rocks that Zero's shot blew. Vulture was buried under the rocks, not even a reploid body could withstand several tons of rocks crashing on it.

Only Vulture's arm remained Visible, reaching up to the sky, as if asking for help.

Zero looked down at it, "It could have been different." He said and moved to leave.

He turned one last glance at Vulture's buried form, to be hit on the side by a rock, shot at him from the pile.

"No it could not… Zero…" Vulture said, his body now glowing. "You've tricked me... but then, I've tricked you as well. You thought it was me you were fighting, whereas you were only battling a chrysalis; behold my true form, given to me by my master!"

Vulture was transformed… an understatement. He was now in a mega form, like those of Copy X, Elpizo, Harpuia, Leviathan and Fenrir. His mega form was the complete opposite of Copy X's.

Whereas Copy X most resembled some sort of angel or seraph in his mega form, Vulture looked like Satan himself. His bat like wings have grown to gigantic proportions and his whole body became ridged and spiked, horns and spines protruding out of it in order to injure an attacker. His hands became large claws, much like those of Copy X, only without the napalm cannons on the palms. Instead, his claws were electrocuted, and seemed ready to slash at their opponent. Vulture's head did not change much, except that the letter V embedded into his head has now grown larger.

On the middle of the torso was now another V, silver this time and right in the middle of it was a bright yellow gem. Zero could only speculate what sinister a mind could create such a fearsome form. Then again, it was the same mind that had Vulture make Camazotz…

Vulture swiped at Zero with one of his claws, Zero jumped on the claw, unfortunately for him.

The claw, as he suspected, was electrocuted. The shock threw him a good five feet away. Vulture laughed, mocking Zero. Underestimating Zero, comparing Zero to other, obsolete, pathetic, weaker reploids…

Zero's eyes shun in red, he was determined not to give in to the frenzy chip. He instead circled around and took some shots at Vulture with his buster. Mainly to tick him off, since he knew his buster was completely ineffective against Vulture's armor. Vulture spun around and sent another claw at Zero, the crimson reploid jumped backwards, smiling as he landed on his feet. When suddenly a green energy beam nearly sliced his head off, it was Vulture's double bladed beam saber. Now huge, it floated above them, spinning, remote controlled.

"Rats." Zero muttered, having fallen to the ground in order to dodge the sword he crawled backwards and jumped to his feet.

"Afraid?" Vulture asked, "I was afraid much before you. I was afraid and alone and weak. But was there anyone there to comfort me? No. I was alone then as I am now. Even with my friends here, my master… You will never know." For the first time since Zero fought him, Vulture sounded more or less human.

"Trust me Vulture, I do know." Zero charged at the colossus claw still embedded in the floor.

Vulture electrocuted it. Mistake, Zero was using the ice chip. The claw froze, but then the black giant's saber came down on Zero, chopping off one of the horns of his helmet.

Zero growled and tried to cut the saber in the middle, the saber spun around and knocked Zero back as its blade collided with his. As the red guardian landed on his feet Vulture spent no time and launched the sword at him again, spinning angrily in great speed. Threatening to shred Zero to pieces, taking him apart piece by piece.

Zero could only barely block it. It was stronger than he was.

"No way…" He said through gritted teeth, "It can't end like this."

"That's what I said last time Zero." Vulture said, once again sounding more human. It seemed that the closer he was to destroying the red reploid, the calmer he became.

"Vulture, it doesn't have to be like this." Zero barely managed to say.

"Yes it does." Vulture said, "The master has ordered it so." The saber began spinning at twice the speed.

The ignorant fool! So what if his master tells him to do it, does it mean he must?

He's Harpuia… or rather, just like him. Zero realized, listening to his master just as Harpuia did with Copy X, blindly.

"Blind fool… you can't see what's in front of you!" Zero said, using his anger to boost his strength.

"You're just like what you've sworn to kill! You're as blind as Harpuia was when he followed Copy X, as blind as the errand boy Elpizo!"

Vulture's eyes suddenly lit and robotically his frozen hand lifted up and charged at Zero full speed, there was no way for him to dodge. One of the claws made a gash on his side.

"Damn it!" Zero yelled, falling backwards under the gigantic claw. He stared at Vulture.

"I've had it with you people, every time it's the same thing! First Sigma, then Copy X, then Elpizo and the Guardians and now you… You are all the same!" Zero said, "You are simple idiots with way too much time and power. You think that what you believe is a fact simply because you believe it. You dare to impose this on others; you dare say what you believe in as if it were a proven fact… You make me sick, Vulture. You and your master, you people are the reason the world is as it is." Zero stated, using his anger again, this time in a higher dosage, in order to push off the gigantic claw.

Vulture was taken aback by Zero's words, they struck a spot.

"Touché Zero. I cannot contradict you." He said, "But it's too late for redemptions. It's time to get rid of you once and for all Zero." Vulture said, launching both his beam saber and his second claw at Zero.

Zero moved like lightning, under the saber and above the claw. He charged up his shield boomerang.

"It's lights out Vulture." The red guardian said with a frown, he dashed back beyond the beam saber.

"Send my regards to Camazotz."

He shot the shield boomerang at Vulture's beam saber, a direct hit. The beam saber started spinning out of control in Vulture's direction.

"Oh shit." Was all that Vulture managed to say before being sliced in half, his massive body came crashing down on the floor as his systems shut down.

"A glorious victory Zero, well fought. But if I can ask one last favor…" Vulture said to Zero, who nodded. "Tell my lying creator that I knew the whole time he was going to let me die. Tell him I was devoted enough to sacrifice my life for his honor… so he would know that I did love him in the end…" With that, Vulture's green orbs shut down and turned black.

The doors to the inner sanctum opened, inviting. Zero looked at Vulture, what a pity…

"If only you were _not_ so devoted…" He said, "You might have lived a good life…"

OOO

A gigantic mechaniloid burst into the chamber, a ram mechaniloid. It immediately pulled back, allowing a swarm of pantheons and golems inside.

"Here we go." Said Bullion, the others nodded. "This is it."

Whirlpool charged forwards, launching harpoons at the assaulting pantheons and golems. Daemon came directly after her, launching his beam-chain-ball at everything he could, often destroying more than one mechaniloid or pantheon in the process.

Bullion used his special technique right at the start, hurling his beam sabers forwards in circles, obliterating massive amounts of pantheons as the sabers circled around and returned to his hands.

Daemon dodged a beam from a nearby golem and charged at it, smashing its face. He leaped up to its back and dived down at a group of unsuspecting pantheons, when suddenly a harpoon pierced his side.

"Damn! Whirlpool what are you…?" But he noticed that the harpoon did not belong to Whirlpool.

"Leviathan, it's a shame you know…" He said, snapping the harpoon in half. "Now you don't have a weapon." He smirked as he turned to the aquatic guardian, who only smiled back, holding one of Whirlpool's harpoons.

"There are plenty to go around." She said. He growled in frustration, but was soon knocked down, by a raging Hubershnicdt.

The executioner quickly jumped to his feet and delivered a round kick to Hub, who caught it in both hands with effort.

"You're that dog… Zero's pal, I see you got your jaw colored…" Daemon said, lifting his body in the air, leaning on Hub with the leg that was grabbed and kicking Hub's head.

Hub was knocked sideways, but Leviathan hurried to help him jump-kicking Daemon's chest. Daemon was barely fazed.

"Oh crap." Leviathan said as he grabbed her leg. Daemon swung it around his head and cast her at the far wall. Hub, who has just got up, dashed past him, knocking him sideways in the process. Daemon was knocked straight to the club of a Pantheon, which scorched his armor. The executioner crushed the pantheon's face with his hand and threw the body at another golem with enough force to divert its laser beam at a nearby flame golem. Causing the latter to explode, taking out a large group of mechaniloids and pantheons. He then had to concentrate almost completely on dodging and defending against the millions of shots aimed at him, most of them barely scraped his armor. But he had to watch out for the more powerful ones.

Meanwhile, Leviathan was being smashed against the wall by Whirlpool. "Leviathan…" She said, not smiling at all. "The master has ordered your death, but you can still leave! No one would know." She said, Leviathan could barely believe the offer.

"Why?" She asked, looking into Whirlpool's dark blue orbs.

"Because you remind me of a younger self or some other cliché gibberish, we kill out of necessity, not pleasure." Whirlpool suddenly gasped, as Hub's knife was jammed into her back. It didn't penetrate deep, but the plasma inflicted immeasurable pain. The blue executioner turned around, removing the knife from her back and sending a bone-shattering kick at Hub's lower abdomen. Hub doubled over and Whirlpool bashed his face with her knee.

Leviathan grabbed Whirlpool's throat from behind and pulled her backwards, so her back arched to a position that was impossible to get free from without falling to the floor.

Whirlpool did just that and Leviathan used that moment to kick her in the head, denting her helmet only slightly. Suddenly, Leviathan felt pain in her leg, she looked down to see a harpoon in it. Bullion took a moment to help out the needy Whirlpool, and for it sustained a searing burn on his left side from a flame mechaniloid. The massive army in the temple was obviously too much for them to handle along with the Guardians.

Whirlpool wasted no time; she kicked Leviathan's foot and knocked her down, then rolling backwards and jumping to her feet, elbowing Hub in the process. She quickly grabbed his arm as he staggered backwards and twisted it, kicking him at Leviathan, who was trying to stand up.

The two fell in a heap, Hub over Leviathan, but meanwhile Whirlpool was bombarded by mechaniloid fire. She did her best to dodge, but still some shots grazed her armor, one even got her straight in the back where Hub stabbed her. She screamed in pain, and stumbled forwards, summoning harpoon after harpoon and lobbing them at the growing amounts of mechaniloids and pantheons.

As Leviathan knocked Hub off of her, she could see tears in Whirlpool's eyes. She felt sorry for Whirlpool; in her eyes Whirlpool wasn't as bad as the others. She wasn't as cruel as Daemon or as calculating as Bullion, or as mad as Vulture. In her bizarre perspective, Whirlpool was doing good, she had no malice in her.

"No time for pity." Leviathan said, sneaking up to the executioner. Whirlpool was busy dodging and lobbing harpoons, she had accidentally hit leviathan in the stomach. The blue guardian doubled over and at that moment was vulnerable, since Hub was still on the floor.

But as Whirlpool turned her head to see what she had hit, a beam crescent hit her dead on. Harpuia and Fefnir finally emerged to join the battle. Whirlpool's stomach was slashed and blood was pouring out. She gasped and breathed heavily, falling to her knees, holding herself with one hand and with the other stabilizing herself on the floor.

Harpuia's triumph was short lived however, as a chain ball knocked him out of the air. Aztec Falcon charged at the aggressor, launching energy balls at the attacking Daemon. Daemon dashed and dodged them, his sheer size crushing any mechaniloid in his way.

Fenrir was tangled in a fight with Bullion and was losing badly. Fenrir was already on the floor, panting and Fefnir himself was already slashed and injured.

Fefnir tried his blasting technique, blasting Bullion with hundreds of small fireballs, but Bullion, who has seen this technique before, jumped in the air, throwing one of his beam sabers at Fefnir and slicing off the end of one of his guns.

"Aw, shit. You want it melee? You got it you son of a bitch!" Fefnir yelled, to which Bullion smirked.

Fefnir charged forwards at the descending Bullion dashing past him and grabbing his foot. Bullion however, knew exactly how to counter that trick; he spun in the air and was free of Fefnir's hold. He landed behind Fefnir and dashed at him, moving to double kick the back of his head, but as he jumped, Fefnir fell flat on the floor, aiming his one remaining cannon upwards, and firing a large fireball.

Bullion had no time to dodge; he was hit by the fireball and thrown in the air at an ice golem, which promptly froze him. Bullion was pissed; he broke out of the ice and smashed the golem with his bare hands, then throwing his blades at another fire golem.

OOO

"Ah, Zero…" Haze Manus said, sitting on a large throne at the top of a small pyramid of stairs. "You have defeated Vulture then."

"Why are you doing this, Manus?" Zero asked, stepping closer to him.

"Why Zero, don't you remember? Humans killed my creator; they killed the most brilliant mind in the world to sate their hunger for reploid blood. They did everything to try and put us down." Haze answered, "I am merely doing something that must be done."

"No, you are causing the deaths of innocent people." Zero said, climbing the stairs.

"Innocent, you say?" Haze asked, "Were they so innocent when they urged you to destroy the Repliforce and thus, kill your beloved Iris?"

"Iris…" Zero said, he remembered the name, a deep wave of sadness enveloped him, "I had no choice…" Haze cut across him harshly.

"Do not dare to try and explain yourself to me, Zero. I care not for your excuses; you killed your loved one, your best friend and my brother, all because of the humans." Manus said, standing up. A monitor flickered on next to him, displaying a gagged and tied Ciel.

"And now I will kill something dear to you." Haze said, gesturing at the monitor.

In front of Zero's eyes Ciel was being electrocuted, he panicked.

"Stop it! You'll kill her!" He yelled, pleadingly at Haze.

"That's the main idea, Zero. To kill the human scientist, the creator of Copy X, she deserves it and you know it Zero." Haze said, but the electrocution stopped. Ciel was leaning back, breathing heavily and obviously in pain.

"It's time to end this Zero, once and for all, to destroy you and wipe the humans off of this world."

Haze removed his cloak, revealing himself. He wore armor similar to that of Bullion's; with the exception that he had no helmet and the armor was silver instead of gold. Haze's silver hair was flowing down to his shoulders. On his eyes he had a black visor, which concealed them completely.

"You said I killed your brother, what did you mean?" Zero asked, looking up at the silver clad reploid.

"Not yet." Haze smiled, "First, we fight…" With that Haze created an energy orb out of thin air and hurled it at Zero in such speed that it could not be seen.

Zero instinctively jumped, but even his legendary speed wasn't enough to dodge the projectile, he was hit dead on and thrown off the stair pyramid.

Smiling from above, the so called Master started descending slowly.

"You see Zero; there is nothing you can do that I cannot counter. Your only option is to use your frenzy chip… but then of course, you might go berserk and destroy your friends in the process."

"I don't need the frenzy chip. I never did, not for Sigma, not for Copy X, not for you…" the guardian said, jumping to his feet and charging at Haze.

"Great speech, but words alone will not defeat me." The person said, "But in your case, rust bucket… nothing you can pull will work."

Rust bucket? Zero knew the name Manus was familiar… "You're Vile's friend… I remember you now." He said confidently, "You tried to kill me before the Doppler incident. I kicked your butt back then, I can do it today." The guardian flashed a smile.

Haze frowned, "You killed Vile, the only one who understood how underappreciated we reploids were. We were machines to the humans, nothing more." Haze stepped one stair down and summoned three more orbs. "Nothing more…" He repeated and launched the orbs at Zero.

Zero, surprisingly managed to dodge all three, a red light flickered around him as he did.

"So, you learned to control the frenzy chip, letting your anger surface when you need it to, very well." Haze said, summoning nine more orbs, launching them all at once at Zero.

A red flame appeared around the reploid and he unbelievingly dodged every one and charged at Haze, delivering a steel denting kick to his stomach. Haze staggered backwards but did not lose his balance. He delivered his own punch at Zero, one which knocked the guardian about ten feet away.

"Although you exert some control over your anger Zero. You will lose control if it rises to extremely high levels." Haze said coolly, once again gesturing at the monitor. Ciel has been electrocuted again, this time however, haze didn't stop it.

"Stop it, now!" Zero yelled, running at Haze.

"The only way for it to stop is for you to defeat me." The silver-haired reploid crossed his hands and waited, "Give in to the frenzy chip. It's the only way."

Zero would not, he charged at Haze, the red flame engulfing him, delivering a flurry of slashes with his beam saber.

As Zero approached him, Haze smiled and drew his own weapon: The Mega Beam.

The Mega Beam's sheer force caused a small shockwave as it was activated.

The Mega beam turned into a shield boomerang and blocked all of Zero's strikes.

"What the heck? Isn't that thing a beam saber?" Zero asked, moving backwards and charging again, this time attacking against the shield boomerang, but then Haze changed the Mega Beam to the Z saber and stabbed at Zero.

"It can be, if I want it to." Zero's armor was pierced and his shoulder was injured, he went backwards.

"A shape shifting weapon…?" Zero said, charging his shield boomerang behind his back. He launched it at Haze and charged forwards behind it. The silver reploid chuckled and the Mega Beam turned into Vulture's double bladed saber. He spun it around so quickly that it seemed like a shield. It deflected the boomerang and as Zero moved to slash at Haze; the latter spun in place and knocked him sideways with the lower blade. Zero was forced to block it and was denied the attacking position.

In the meanwhile, Ciel was still being shocked, her visage was unbearable.

"Stop it Haze!" Zero yelled, "She's done no harm!"

"She made Copy X, there is plenty harm with that. I admit, she set things right by sending you to destroy him. But she must still pay."

The monitor disappeared as Haze said the last sentence, which infuriated Zero.

"No!" He yelled, his body began glowing as his frenzy chip took control.

He charged at Haze supernaturally fast and before Haze could block him he delivered a crushing kick combo to his chest and stomach and finished with an uppercut to Haze's chin, knocking the antagonist down the stairs.

"Nicely done Zero, but you've just given me the data I required." Haze slowly got to his feet, and around him a silver flame began to envelop him.

"A replica of your frenzy chip, a perfect replica I created using the data we stole from Neo Arcadia. Daemon and Whirlpool were kind enough to hack into Neo Arcadia's database for me. And now Zero, you die." Haze charged forth, just as Zero did the same and the two clashed. This time Z-Saber versus Mega-Saber, there was a power struggle. Both pushing against one another in tremendous forces, no one was gaining the upper hand.

"I must admit, your strength is noteworthy, relic." Haze mocked, "But I will prevail, justice will prevail, for all of the innocent reploids who were retired by your friends!" Haze's flame shun brighter and he pushed Zero away, charging at him and demonstrating perfect control of Harpuia's technique, he shot three beam crescents at the guardian.

The latter dodged the first two but the third only barely missed him. He charged at Haze full speed, knocking away the burning silver reploid and slashing his abdomen. His armor was not scathed.

Zero growled and charged again, this time Haze blocked him, matching his moves with perfect counter moves.

"You cannot defeat me Zero; I've been working on my armor and weapons for over a century. I am completely immune to your Z-saber or any other beam weapon in existence."

Zero turned off his beam saber, "Then my hands will have to do." He said and charged once more, punching Haze in the gut.

Haze barely budged, "No one can defeat me, especially not a **_maverick_** like you."

He said it, he called Zero maverick. Zero's flame intensified, sending out a shockwave that managed to knock Haze back.

"You pathetic reploid, I have spent a century fighting mavericks where ever they were! I lost Iris because of the Mavericks! I lost Colonel because of the mavericks! I lost myself because of the mavericks! How dare you?" And with that, and a burst of unbelievable speed Zero charged at Haze, then they both began exchanging heavy blows.

OOO

Leviathan was terribly busy, trying to help Harpuia and Aztec Falcon overcome Daemon. No matter what they did he just wouldn't go down. Leviathan slashed at him with a harpoon but he caught it, in the same movement also smacking Harpuia with it and poor Leviathan who was still hanging on to it. Aztec Falcon charged at him dead on, trying to ram him, but the red executioner managed to hold it off, grabbing his the Mutos' beak and shoulder, he stopped his attack.

"Neo Arcadia will prevail, irregular." Aztec Falcon said, pushing against Daemon in hopes of distracting him long enough for Leviathan and Harpuia to get their bearings.

"We'll see." Daemon said, grinning. He moved the hand grabbing Falcon's shoulder to Falcon's arm and ripped it off, then knocking the reploid away using his chain-ball. He then used the wing to smack a nearby pantheon, which was annoyingly shooting him over and over the entire time.

Harpuia was on the floor, Leviathan on him. "We can't stop them. They're inflicting massive damage on our armies." Harpuia said quietly, barely heard over the loud noise of the shooting and the vast movements of gigantic mechaniloids and reploids.

"Yes we can! We took down Whirlpool; we'll take the other two down as well. Think of Zero! Fighting against their master for us, if we fail his fight will be for nothing!"

Harpuia looked sad for a moment, "Look Fairy, if you two are planning something for the future… I don't know, but… you have my blessing."

Leviathan slapped him, "Harpuia, this is hardly the time or the place for such nonsense. Now get up and fight." Although she seemed slightly amused, a small smile could be seen on her face.

"Fine." Harpuia said, knocking Leviathan off of him as he stood up. He charged at Daemon at full speed, while the latter was busy mutilating some poor pantheon. He struck dead on, knocking Daemon down. He yelled into his comm. "Artillery, begin bombardment of the fortress."

He looked back at Leviathan, who nodded. It was time to press on the attack.

Whirlpool looked up at Hubershnicdt, who was pinning her against the wall, as the temple began to shake.

"Please, just run… The master will destroy you." She looked sadly at Hubershnicdt.

"Zero has the frenzy chip, he will not lose." Hubershnicdt argued, staring at her aqua eyes with his own emerald ones.

"But the master has one too, a better one… he'll kill Zero and if you won't run he'll kill you too."

"An Executioner with a conscience, I never thought I'd live to see the day." He smiled.

"You didn't like being on guard duty for twenty years, did you? You were the runner up for X's guard, but all of your hard work went down the drain because of Copy X. Don't pretend to judge us Hubershnicdt." Whirlpool said angrily.

Hub smiled feraly, "You deserve what you get, for killing my friends in X's guard…" He punched Whirlpool hard in the stomach, she doubled over. He didn't stop there, he grabbed her face and smashed her head against the stone wall, once… twice… three times, before kneeing her in the stomach again and letting her drop to the floor.

"You don't deserve judgment, you only deserve pain." The Doberman said, a glint of madness in his eyes. Not one to let a cat lick their wounds, he kicked Whirlpool while she was down.

She curled up into a fetal position and he stomped on her with his foot repeatedly.

"You killed the people I grew up with, the only people I actually cared about until Zero chose me. They were wonderful people, but for you they were nothing, just machines. You're no better than Copy X, you hypocrite bastards!"

Whirlpool groaned in pain every time Hub's foot came down on her, but she still managed to say, "You're right… but that's what I'm trying to change right now, by telling you to…" But before she could complete the sentence, a large bang was heard. Hub stopped and looked upwards, the ceiling was about to collapse on him.

Whirlpool used his distraction; she rose up quick as lightning and pushed him as far as she could. All bloody, she smiled, as the ceiling collapsed on top of her.

Fefnir and Bullion were fighting, sending punches at each other; Bullion was quite impressed by Fefnir. What he lacked in technique, he made up for in sheer power of improvisation. Every time Fefnir was not able to hit him, he always continued his movements, using the motion to accelerate and come in from another angle.

Bullion jumped backwards to avoid Fefnir's last strike and looked back, to see how the others were doing. He saw Whirlpool looking at something, then disappearing under a pile of stones and debris.

"Whirlpool!" He yelled, "No!" His eyes shun in red, and in the air, he changed directions completely, instead of soaring backwards, he was flying forwards at Fefnir, knocking the guardian down and punching him repeatedly.

"My sister!" He said, "You'll pay you Neo-Arcadian scum!" But in his blind rage, he did not notice Fenrir behind him. As he was punching Fefnir, Fenrir charged up his claw, and with one swift motion, drove them through Bullion's back.

"No." Bullion said, turning around and punching Fenrir with so much force, that he knocked him straight into a giant mechaniloid that was making its way to them, destroying it completely. The bigger mechaniloids began moving inside the temple, crushing the broken pantheons and mechaniloids that were in their way.

Daemon didn't react favorably to Whirlpool's untimely removal from the battle, he roared in rage and swung his chain ball, knocking Leviathan on the floor and causing her to drag on for a few feet. When she finally stopped he stomped on her, pinning her down on the floor with his gigantic leg. Suffering two blade crescents from Harpuia, both hitting him square in the back, he groaned in pain and turned around.

Harpuia was charging up for his technique, which he has not seen, unfortunately.

But he was prepared to give it everything he had, for Whirlpool and Vulture.

OOO

"You hear that, Zero? The artillery is bombing the temple! You know what it means don't you?" Haze asked, laughing. "It means your friends are dead, so now they don't care blasting this place along with their corpses!" the silver clad reploid erupted in laughter.

But something happened to Zero just then, his rage intensified to a whole new level.

He just stood in place, his power levels rising and rising with no end in sight.

"You killed my brother, Zero! It's only fair that I kill your friends! You killed my friend, you killed my brother and the humans you protect have killed my maker! Now it's payback time!" Haze laughed, raising his own power levels in accordance with Zero's.

"Stop." A voice said in Haze's ears, "If you don't stop him his core will overload, he'll destroy everything." Haze looked at the cyber elf floating near him.

"Is that you, X?" Haze asked.

"It is, I beg of you Mr. Manus, please don't let him reach critical overload."

"Why? He ruined my life. I worked my heart out to give my brother a safe job, in a safe place such as Neo Arcadia, a mere errand-boy. No risks involved. But when my brother saw the truth, when I died, he began to be more rebellious, blaming you for it. You didn't really even care. Your copy certainly didn't. He didn't even bother to investigate the case." Haze grit his teeth, "And now, my brother is dead… he killed him. He killed Elpizo." Haze pointed at Zero.

"I am not dead." Another, more high-pitched voice said, as another cyber elf drifted down in front of Haze.

"E… Elpizo?" Haze asked, "How?"

The pink cyber elf hovered in front of him, looking at him.

"Zero showed me I was wrong… by trying to destroy Neo Arcadia, I was just like those I sought to kill… I was mistaken brother and so are you."

Haze removed his visor, revealing two silver eyes, "Brother…" he said.

"I have had the time to think about it Haze, we were wrong all along… killing is never the option, it brings only suffering and pain… Even your children realized that, Whirlpool, before the ceiling collapsed on her, saved a Neo-Arcadian. Vulture, if it weren't for his love to you, he would have stopped his fight with Zero…"

A single tear ran from Haze's eyes, "I always trusted you Elpizo, I always loved you. I will stand down if you ask me to… I didn't know you were alive…"

Zero smiled, "No backing down now, Manus." He said, "A fight to the death." X looked at Zero, what the frenzy chip has done… He should never have copied it from Zero's original body.

"Kill him brother, it's the only choice." Elpizo said sadly, "If he overloads, everyone will die." Haze looked at Zero, who beckoned him to come closer. Unnaturally calm even though his power levels were still rising rapidly.

"No." Haze said, "There can be only one way to end this. I will never be the good guy. Not for humans, not for reploids. No one will accept me, even if I forgive myself, the others never will. There is only one thing I can do to redeem myself, to sacrifice myself for them." Haze said.

"What do you mean brother?" Elpizo asked, worried.

"The only thing that will calm him down is my death… I have to deliver it… X, make sure he finds Ciel, she's in a hidden room to the left of my throne. She's alive and well."

"Mr. Manus…" X said.

"Haze, don't!" Elpizo yelled pleadingly. Haze smiled, "I wouldn't be good at being a hero anyway. I never was any good at being good." He smiled and ran for Zero.

Zero went into a combat pose, completely oblivious to the conversation that has just been playing out in front of his eyes.

Haze lunged at Zero, closing his eyes as he unsummoned his armor. He felt Zero's Z-saber cutting through him, he felt the pain.

"Brother!" Elpizo yelled.

Zero sliced Haze into two, continuing to slash at him like mad, mutilating his body beyond repair. His power levels were dropping, his rage lessening with each strike. This was revenge for the guardians, for Hubershnicdt, for Ciel and Colbor, for old Andrew and Alouette, for Fenrir and Aztec Falcon. For every drop of human blood that was spilled by that reploid, Haze.

It was the end.

OOO

As Bullion and Daemon felt their links to their master vanish, both screamed in pain.

Every mechaniloid in the area stopped its function, even the guardians and their protégés have stopped to look at the pained reploids. Harpuia couldn't help but feel satisfaction as he saw the reploids that have tortured them for so long suffer. But he couldn't help but feel sorry at them for their pain.

As their screams finally stopped, Fenrir, Fefnir, Aztec Falcon, Leviathan, Hubershnicdt and Harpuia gathered around them in a circle. Bullion was already grievously wounded from Fenrir's strike. One Executioner against three Guardians and their protégé's were odds that no one could win against.

"Do not…" Bullion coughed to Daemon, "Do not disgrace father…" With that, his eyes went blank and he fell limp at Daemon's side.

Daemon held Bullion close to him and then let go. "We will not be forgotten…" He said, "There will always be more like us." With that his hands glowed with red light. He raised them in the air.

"Get out everyone!" Harpuia yelled, he held Aztec Falcon's still-attached arm and pulled him away as he flew.

The others dashed away after him, putting as much distance as possible between them and the self-destructing Daemon.

When Daemon self destructed, the debris flying everywhere in a wide radius, it was over. It was finally over.

Zero was already outside, he had been safely transferred away using the powers of Elpizo and X, both of them left him afterwards, without another word.

When the guardians found him, he was unconscious, his powers completely exhausted due to the massive use of his frenzy chip.

OOO

It has been a week since the Executioner crisis was officially over, although Zero barely received any recognition for it. Most of the recognition went to the others, who in turn enjoyed it greatly.

There was a great ball, to celebrate Neo Arcadia's triumph, both in Neo Arcadia and in the resistance base. Vulture never retired a soul of the resistance. The blood and pieces of cloth were fake, probably taken from pantheons. The Executioners were not the blood thirsty animals everyone thought they were. Zero knew that much. He knew that Vulture was not as bad as he pretended to be, he knew that Whirlpool never wanted the war in the first place. That Bullion and Daemon were only moved by their loyalty. He placed a flower on the victory monument that has been erected in the Neo-Arcadian gardens for each of the Executioners and one for their master.

He attended both balls, first the one of the resistance, then Neo Arcadia's. He and Leviathan danced until the very end, glad to finally have some time to relax and have fun.

At the ball, he saw Hubershnicdt, standing in his black and silver uniform, smiling at the room with his now properly colored jaw. He was a new person ever since Zero recruited him, no one doubted that. But to see him beaming like that, it was almost unnatural.

"Hub, I want you to listen to me." Zero told him, "You're free, relieved of duty."

Hub looked at him as if he slapped him in his face, "Excuse me Master Zero?"

"Go and seek your fortune Hub, there's not much for you here anymore. You've reached the top, the height of your career. A Guardian's protégé is as high as reploids go here."

"True, but where will I go?" Hub asked, "What will I do?" Zero smiled at the question.

"Be a bounty hunter, that's a job that suits you just fine." Now it was Hub's turn to smile.

"Very well Master Zero, but who will replace me?"

"No one, I'm sure there won't be a need." Zero waved it off.

"Thank you Master Zero, you have been too kind to me. You've given me my life back."

"But we're even now, after you saved mine. So I guess I'll see you around?" Zero said, after Leviathan bugged him to go and dance.

"I'm sure you will Master Zero." Hub smiled at him, such a genuine smile that made Zero smile back.

OOO

Apparently, the lives for guardians were not always that exciting. After the crisis, all Zero did all day long was paperwork, paperwork and yes, some more paperwork.

And as usual, the other guardians were cranky, dying for some action. Since sparring with Zero became a regular thing, it wasn't as exciting as before. They even gave it up after a while, there was no beating him.

Zero decided it would be much simpler to return to the Resistance, for the time being, as he explained to Leviathan.

Leviathan however, was not convinced. She knew he was trying to dodge his duties, but who was she to stop him? If he wanted to go away and become a resistance member again it was up to him. But that would mean putting a hold on their relationship.

He bade Harpuia and Fefnir farewell, Harpuia was pissed and Fefnir couldn't care less, more food for him.

He left quietly, no ceremony or anything, just a goodbye kiss to Leviathan, and off he went, appearing back at the resistance base.

Of course, they made a party in his honor. Everyone patted him on the back, as usual.

Life would be finally returning to normal… for him…

OOO

At the executioner's destroyed stronghold, a lone figure remained. Trying to figure out how it all went wrong so fast.

It took a whole day for the auto repair to work, but she wished it wouldn't have. To find her brother's parts scattered all over the landscape, to see her master's visor shattered in the ruined temple… she didn't want to wake up to this… and in the end, after a week, she just couldn't bear it anymore.

The next morning after her decision, she came up to a cliff, her armor unsummoned, letting her hair flow with the wind, dressed in a blue gown. She would die in the environment she loved most. Falling into the water, where she will rest forever.

Whirlpool jumped…

**The End.**


End file.
